“Tomato Artists”
There are so many inspirational breeders who have made the living art that are tomatoes. These are 6 who mean the most to me:
Tom Wagner
Tomato Tinkerer, “Tater Mater Man”
creator of Green Zebra (1983) and hundreds of other varieties
Photo credit: tatermaterseeds.com
Photo credit: experimentalfarmnetwork.org
Craig LeHoullier
Tomato Godfather/Shepherd
Creator of Lucky Cross, Little Lucky, Cherokee Chocolate, many others
Sharer of heirlooms including Cherokee Purple, so many others
One of the orchestrators of the Dwarf Tomato Project
Brad Gates
Willy Wonka of Tomatoes
Fred Hempel
(1960 - 2023)
Consummate tomato craftsman
Creator of dozens of amazing varieties: Orange Jazz, Marzano Fire, Green Tiger, Pink Tiger, Lucky Tiger, Maglia Rosa, Orange Caprese, Benevento, etc
Photo credit: Bene Seeds
Karen Olivier
In similar style, a tomato artisan extraordinaire
Creator of Tundra, Taiga, Cowboy, Nightingale, Karma series, Yellow Brick Road, Ruby Slippers, Emerald City, etc
Bill Yoder
Tomato Rockstar; he names his tomatoes after songs by his favorite bands, so he called his website Rockstar Tomatoes, but he’s the real rockstar!
And too many honorable mentions to list, so many people doing wonderful work: Bill Jeffers, Joe Rarus, Keith Mueller, Marsha Eisenberg, Ellie of Bunny Hop, Lee Goodwin of J&L Gardens, Evan Gregoire, Blane Horton, Russ Crowe, so many others…