I have been an avid gardener since I was a little girl living in the city of Detroit.
My father and I would work to turn our city back yard into a beautiful vegetable and flower garden each year, and spend many hours processing the food.
My interest in Heirloom tomatoes began back when I was gardening with my father.
After I married and moved to this farm - which has been in my husband's family for three generations - I continued to garden.
I noticed that you were only able to buy hybrid plants after a while. So it has been my mission for many years to save seeds from any heirloom tomato I could find.
I began really saving different varieties of Heirlooms after I started talking to like minded people on line about this passion. That's where I met Martin Longseth, who had one of the largest personal heirloom seed collections of that time.
I would order several varieties from him each year along with doing many seed swaps. My collection soared.
When Martin started getting ill, we would talk about what was going to happen to his collection. The last time I sent him my order he said he wasn't sure he was going to be able to fill it due to his health.
I offered to pay his son anything he wanted to collect a pinch of each variety he had. I sure didn't want his priceless collection to die like so many before his.
The next thing I knew I got an email telling me the first box was on the way. And they kept coming! AlI told I ended up getting 14 boxes containing anywhere from 140- 150 little glass sample jars full of tomato seeds.
When Martin passed away that next year, I was notified by his son that I was to get his whole collection.
I explained that I already had received them. Well to my surprise I had only gotten a few of his seeds. That Christmas I received several large boxes of around 150-180 pounds of seeds. I had received his whole collection.
It was then I decided sharing this collection of seeds with the world, like he had done, was the right thing to do.
Since then a few other people have decided to share their collections with me.
I am proud to be a steward of these seeds, and proud to ask you to continue to grow them as well.
Gratefully,
Kim Lund