So sorry for your loss.

I have been off and on tomato sites since Gardenweb. Joined TV in 2006 when it was started. So I have read many posts from Carolyn over the years.

You mentioned that SSE sells seeds and you didn’t want Carolyn’s seeds to go to a place that sells seeds. It was because Carolyn mentioned Seed Savers Exchange many times over the years that I knew it even existed. She would say she listed varieties with the exchange for years and was, I believe, a Lifetime Member.
SSE is a non-profit organization that does have a retail division but that is not their primary mission. I finally made a long overdue pilgrimage to Decorah , Iowa to visit the farm in 2017 during a tomato tasting event. Remarkable place.

They house the largest non-governmental seed bank of heirloom seeds in the country.


https://www.seedsavers.org/mission?_ga= ... 1586218685


Carolyn also mentioned sending seeds to Victory Seeds, Sandhill Preservation,
And Tomato Growers Supply Company (now under new ownership?).
She encouraged patronizing these small seed sellers . She would say on more than one occasion that she wasn’t into seed trading but she knew people loved to do it. Because of her I have purchased seeds from all those small seed companies plus Tatiana’s when she was selling seeds and whose site Carolyn would reference. They were fortunate to receive seeds from Carolyn that she thought deserved a wider distribution.

Again, sorry for the loss of your sister and best wishes in your endeavor to place Carolyn’s seeds in capable hands.

Farmer Shawn sent you a PM

I got yours, and responded.

In her later years, Carolyn wasn't happy with SSE.

I thought of Carolyn a couple of times today. First while I was tending some tomatoes that she had introduced. Second while I was shopping at Costco. I was just looking at the merchandise and saw a new bacon in the cooler. I went closer. Was I seeing what I thought I was seeing? Yes! Carloyn's favorite bacon was at Costco. Nueske's Applewood Smoked Bacon. She had spoken about this bacon several times over the years. She had it delivered right to her door. Of course I had to buy it, just because she loved it so. I haven't tried it yet but hope I enjoy it as much as she did.

I’ve just read the first post of the thread (short and spaced visits due to the weight of years) it helped me to understand the strong reaction Carolyn had against me when I wrote about Marsha’s generosity. She had the impression I was not respecting the work she did on tomato sites and felt cheated. I wondered how she could think I had ever written apologies to her, now I understand she had problems which could make her think I was aggressing her.

I'm so sorry for your loss, and for the associated problems. It's hard enough just dealing with the stress of watching your loved one get sick, and eventually pass. I have been there, but without the online mess, and that by itself is enough to break you.

I don't have the skill or knowledge to be a waystation for carrying on her work, but whoever you decide to pass her legacy on to, I would be happy to help in any way I can, including growing out seed, helping distribute saved varieites, or other chores. I am currently growing a few varieties intended to be part of her tribute, already.

Peace to you,
Kathy

I never could figure out why she turned 180º on SSE. They were the main promoters for her book. In the early 2000s, one dared not say a bad word about SSE in Garden Web. And there were many times when she cut a reply short because she had so many requests to fill. One thing to her credit after 2006 was that she followed me in dropping the price so that all members paid the same. (That has since been done by many other major listers.) Things were strange after 2006 as the number of varieties offered were smaller and smaller. The final year was, I think, 2016 or so and was a head-scratcher. She was going to stop listing as all of her seeds were at least 10 years old. What is suspected by some is that her 2006 varieties were not grown by her. Lots of mystery involved!

Martin

I would like to help answer some of the questions asked but to be honest I have no answers. As to the favorite bacon I can only add that as far as I know she did not cook after see moved back to NY. Yes many of the seeds were old but most I have are from 2015/2018.

hybrid wrote: ↑Thu Apr 09, 2020 7:55 am I spent about a day and a half just going thru what I call her tomato room. What surprised me the most was no records of any kind. It was possible that she might have entered her notes on her computer. Her dish which is where her computer receives its signal was hit by lightning and the computer was fried. A few seed packets had names on them from who she received them from but nothing else. Still thinking about the best placement. thanks all dave

Oh no! Just reading this. No backup disks?

Dave, Carolyn did not cook nor did Freida, but when Martha was around she would make bacon for breakfast on Sundays for Carolyn.

Remember I did live close to Carolyn for a number of years so I knew what she did and did not do. When she lived with our parents she never did cook and for that matter only picked tomatoes then and growing up maybe twice in all those years. She knew nothing about tomatoes until moving to Colorado.

No one knows anything until they learn it. Not knowing anything about tomatoes as a child growing up does not mean she did not acquire a lot of knowledge and expertise as an adult. There are wonderful artists that never picked up a brush until late in life and people that didn't go to college until they were retired. That does not diminish the experience or knowledge that they gained whenever they gained it.

Well, here it is, her birthday! I enjoyed Carolyn's tales from her childhood experience of a farm family. The things she watched her mother do which she described and so on. I don't recall reading any posts where she talked about cooking, although she did mention that a meal was brought or made for her now and then. We've always had lots of cooking threads, but she wasn't interested in it.
Great taste in tomatoes, she had!
And wisdom... agree to disagree. Will never forget her role as a peace maker, and excellent people skills in her day.

hybrid wrote: ↑Sat Jun 27, 2020 12:53 pm Remember I did live close to Carolyn for a number of years so I knew what she did and did not do. When she lived with our parents she never did cook and for that matter only picked tomatoes then and growing up maybe twice in all those years. She knew nothing about tomatoes until moving to Colorado.

She also developed a taste for Colorado Western Slope peaches and Rocky Ford cantaloupes that I had sent her for a few years before her passing. I miss doing that whenever August rolls around and the ads for both of those start appearing.

Yes today was her birthday . I would never question her knowledge and love of tomatoes. I only mentioned her early life on the family farm as she mentioned it often. She was not involved all that much as she spent many hours taking piano lessons and practicing. I remember her playing Malaguena over and over with the same dedication she later did with tomatoes.

That is such a beautiful image... I just imagine her as a child soaking in the richness of farm life around her while she focused on her music practice. So many of us come to gardening late, in spite of our parents who worked it while we were too engaged by other aspects of a child's or young adult's life. My Dad was my gardener inspiration but I wasn't hooked until my early twenties, with a child of my own.
So it doesn't really surprise me that her passion for tomatoes and seed saving came later, and yet the farm experience was there to nourish that seed, set to the tune of Malaguena!

I only participated in gardening as a child as a chore. I would be told to help weed the garden, and I hated it. However, I did love to be told to go out and pick a tomato and I was given a salt shaker to bring with me, and I ate it like an apple. Fully ripe and still warm from the vine, standing the yard to eat it, it didn't matter if juice dribbled down my chin, lol.

Good memories in these post.

She did one time admit that she learned about tomatoes late in life and didn't learn enough. That is why her book contains a number of new commercial or non-heirloom varieties. She covered that by making her own rules on what is an heirloom and then not sticking with it.

More on her SSE doings. One of her peeves was members who only listed a single variety of anything. She said that it was done so they could obtain varieties at the reduced price for listed members. That meant that she only got $2 instead of $3. That was a major issue at the time. When I mentioned loaning the Yearbook to a friend, she threatened to have me kicked out of SSE. Then she later turned against them and nobody has explained why.

Martin