Hi everyone! My name is Laura. I am the garden manager for Detroit Public Schools, meaning I work with over 80+ schools to get their gardens up and running! I love my job very much. The district also operates a farm as a part of our farm to school program, so I am lucky enough to get to spend time on the two acres in some of our high tunnels growing tomatoes. And when I'm done with work, I go home, and spend the rest of the day also in the garden. I am a huge huge tomato fan. At one point, I had over 40 tomato plants growing in my backyard garden in Hamtramck, MI. Now, as I have moved and space allows, I am trying to figure out my perfect 10 to grow. I am so exited to connect with other tomato lovers!

hi laura,
for me very excited to see your post, being a native of detroit now living in da U.P.
AND i used to work in hamtramck at the perry drug on john r and joseph campau for
several years. thats where i met my wife. she is finnish, not polish.curious where the
farm garden is at. my wife wants to know if you do any permaculture. i did not know
that the school system had a garden program. that is a very good thing. kids need to
know where real food come from. detroit schools were always strapped for cash. my
wifes friend was a teacher for the deaf for many years there. she said teachers would
complain about not having enough desks for the students.
a garden program, wow.


keith

Welcome to the Junction @LauraSajdak. I'm so glad to hear that whole school districts are introducing kids to gardening. It used to be one school here and there.

You have come to the right place if you love tomatoes. Good luck on finding the perfect 10 tomatoes. I have been on that quest for years and years. The biggest problem is that there are so many tomatoes to try. My top 10 list is forever changing. In fact I don't even use it anymore. I now have my top 30. That list still changes too!

Welcome to the Junction, Laura, and greetings from down here in Georgia! Come on in and make yourself at home. Lots to check out. I look forward to hearing about your school garden and farm adventures.

Welcome to the forum!

That is a great job you do! I don't have kids, but several friends kids got the garden bug from me, when their families would come over for dinners, and they would go out in the garden with me, and help me harvest things for dinner! And they always loved those cherry tomatoes, and the sugar snap peas, that could be eaten in the garden, as snacks, but I taught them early, not to touch the hot peppers, even though they might look really good!

Keep up the good work! Looking forward to hearing about it!

Welcome to the Junction from Down Under @LauraSajdak. Sounds like you control a very interesting program. Looking forward to hearing more about it.

Welcome! Nice to see another native Detroiter join us!
Grew up on the west side and hubby was Polish with lots of family in Hamtramck.
Your job sounds very very fun but probably stressful too.
Can’t wait to hear how things go!

Welcome from America's Dairyland. I used to visit our regional office in Novi time-n-again, have a seasonal pal in Morley, and still prowl around up @rxkeith's way in the U.P.

This crowd will be more than happy to...um...help you's figure out a Top Ten.

Bearing in mind that a camel is a horse designed by a committee, yer final list may involve subtraction by addition.

The Gotch

Welcome Laura, and yay school garden and farm to school! Wonderful, looking forward to hear more.
We had nothing like it when I was in school, just thinking about what a difference that would've made. I've heard of a few odds and ends of similar programs starting to crop up here as well though. Love it!!

Welcome! I was just doing some reading about farm to school last night to see if that was something I could get involved in.

Welcome from Central Texas.
Thank you for your service.

Welcome from Austin, Texas...25 miles northwest of Bastrop, Texas...home of Doss Worth.

And welcome from another Texan in suburban Austin. Sounds like you got a dream job!

Welcome from Alaska !! Sorry I’m late just been busy all around good luck

Hi, @LauraSajdak! What a fantastic introduction, and what a dream job you have! Welcome to the forum, I hope you enjoy your time here and find even more neat tomato varieties to pique your interest.