Searching and Sifting

My process began with the experience of growing really good tomatoes, and wondering what made them so good, when right next to them another plant was making ones that weren’t nearly as good.

When doing anything creative, the end result is influenced by the quality of the starting materials, and so I sought out what I considered to be the best existing varieties to my tastes (and taste is subjective).

The Alchemy of Craft

There is a transformative magic that happens through craft, with the kinds of hands-on creative work in which there is an intimacy and close attention with the subject. There comes to be an instinctual recognition when an exceptional one appears, an instinct that can be honed through the benefit of experience.

Solve et coagula: Separated and Joined

When two varieties cross, the “skills” (genes) of the dancers (tomatoes) mix into each others slots, the movement, the dance, isolates them as elements (solve) making it possible for them to recombine (coagula) in new ways. (New skill combinations = new tomato varieties).

This opens up a new pool of possibilities, and introduces some chaos. There is a balance to finding the right amount of chaos conducive to your particular process, the amount that allows unexpected results to occur, but still allows tracking what happened, and being able to conserve the precious time put into it.

The Essential Palette: Genes/Skills

In this classical breeding model, the smallest unit is the individual allele that codes for a particular gene (or “skill” in the dance metaphor). Like a painter with a palette of colors, or an actual choreographer assessing the skills of each dancer, a tomato breeder looks at what possibilities each gene brings to the composition.

As above, so below

Just as there are little dances within the tomato chromosomes creating new combinations of genes— there is a bigger dance going on, with the bumblebee, you and me, the universe, energy; the inner nature connecting with outer nature.

The psychological and philosophical concept of the life force, or Eros, draws us forward to explore and connect, to gravitate towards truth, beauty, and spiritual and intellectual wholeness.