The enthusiasm of two men has made Wanganui a byword for heritage gardeners.
Stories about the activities of Mark Christensen and Frank Bristol appeared in national newspapers last weekend. Since then two workers at Bristol Plants & Seeds have been full-time posting heirloom tomato seed nationwide.
The most popular of the
Not many of the orders were from Wanganui, perhaps because 5000 heritage tomato plants were given away in the city last year, as part of the Grab a Bite That's Right initiative.
Thousands more would be going out again this year, in late November.
The availability of the tomato seed on the internet was an unplanned spin-off from Mr Bristol and Mr Christensen's efforts to preserve and distribute heritage food plants.
Over the previous three years they've grown 260 old tomato varieties, and sent samples of ripe fruit away to be analysed by Dr Tony McGhie in Palmerston North. He found some varieties had twice as much lycopene – a nutritional compound known to combat cancer – as standard commercial cultivars.
The pink, red, black and purple varieties seemed to have the highest levels.
Mr Bristol said people had bred commercial tomatoes for qualities like long shelf life, disease resistance and yield. Flavour and nutrition tended to lose out.
The two men decided they might as well save the seed of the fruit they had grown.
"We don't have a careful five-year plan. We do some things impulsively," Mr Bristol said.
That seed was now available for planting this year. They want it in as many hands as possible, and said it was easy for people to then save their own.
Their Central Tree Crops Research Trust project is not for profit. The seeds were sold to pay wages and costs, and keep the project going.
Gardening is "on the crest of a wave", Mr Bristol said.
"You go out to dinner now, and people want to talk about their vegetable gardens."
For more information, see the Bristols' website, www.bristol.co.nz or the Central Tree Crops Research Trust one, treecropsresearch.org.
CENTRAL TREE CROPS RESEARCH TRUST PROJECTS
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