“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
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
Creator of Berkeley Tie-Die, Berkeley Pink Tie-Die, Brad’s Atomic Grape, so many others
Made Tim’s Taste of Paradise available again after it was almost lost
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
Karen Olivier
In similar style, another tomato artisan extraordinaire
Creator of Tundra, Taiga, Cowboy, Nightingale, Karma series, Yellow Brick Road, Ruby Slippers, Emerald City, etc
Bill Yoder
Tomato Rockstar
And too many honorable mentions to list, many people doing wonderful work: Bill Jeffers, Joe Rarus, Keith Mueller, Marsha Eisenberg, Ellie of Bunnyhop, Lee Goodwin of J&L Gardens, Evan Gregoire, Blane Horton, Russ Crowe, so many others…