On May 2, I spent some time at the Chestnut Hill Home & Garden Festival, manning the Grid table. Happy Cat Organics was stationed two booths to our left, so I was able to impress upon tomato guru Tim Mountz to select four varieties from his massive collection for inclusion in my community garden plot.
Asking Tim to pick just four proved quite the challenge for him—they really are his babies. I offered a bit of guidance, since I knew I wanted at least two small/grape/cherry plants.
In the end, I got the “Black Ruffle”—a tomato Tim bred himself—a little yellow variety (“Snowberry”) that grows like grapes, a peach tomato plant (yes, they’re fuzzy) and a grape tomato that ripens orange with a red star burst (that one’s called “Isis Candy”).
My tomatoes went in the ground on Saturday, along with some Happy Cat bean seeds (including Lancaster Brown Bean, a seed from Tim’s grandfather’s collection). Now its just a waiting game.
For more on Happy Cat, check out the story from March’s Grid. To get your own Tim-approved tomato seedlings, stop by the farm’s booth at Headhouse Square, every Sunday, 10 a.m. – 2 p.m.
