TILLING TIMES Dreaming of tomatoes

According to journalist and g ardener

Erica Grivas, Seattle is “One tough tomato town. It’s not impossible, for sure, but oh it takes guts.”

Tilling Times

JEANNE

Marina is the treasurer for the Mukilteo Community Garden, and she is becoming our tomato expert. She thinks of tomatoes as “my soul focus in the garden, my main source of pleasure and anguish, but also lots and lots of tomato sandwiches.” reading every book about tomatoes in the library. Because heirloom tomatoes are open pollinators, multiple varieties can be grown next to each other. She ended up trying 13 varieties last summer. paign donates funds to Stop AAPI Hate Center, a coalition of the Asian Pacific Policy & Planning Council, Chinese for Affirmative Action, and the Asian American Studies Department at San Francisco State University. The organization tracks and reports incidents of hate, violence, harassment, and discrimination as well as provides translation see JEWELRY COLLECTION page 13 u

In past years Marina grew tomatoes in her p-patch garden and later in patio pots. The results were disappointing. The tomatoes planted in the ground took up lots of real estate but yielded relatively few tomatoes. The patio pots were a little better, but she wanted more than a few pounds of tomatoes from three plants.

Her heroes became tomato people. She read about Tom Wagner, tomato breeder from Everett, who introduced the Green Zebra variety. And Tim Stark with his memoirs of accidental tomato grower – an excellent read. She even bought her own copy of Stark’s book so she can someday stalk him at his Pennsylvania farm stand.