Queen of the Nightshades

Of all vegetables, tomatoes seem to ignite the greatest passion and generosity among gardeners, especially those who start their plants from seed. In July, as I contemplated the 20-foot-long wall of towering tomatoes, I decided I had tipped over into loopy excess. Then I met Angela Faulkner.

Faulkner is a graphic designer. During the growing season she devotes a good share of her waking hours indulging her fascination with growing unusual vegetables, especially tomatoes. This year, she is growing 65 varieties of heirloom tomatoes she has collected over the years from fellow breeders and enthusiasts she meets in her travels and on the internet. A native of Cincinatti, Ohio, Faulkner describes herself as a child of “Appalachian parents from Tennessee” who view gardening as a means of survival, not for creative experimentation. “They think I’m nuts,” she says.

Faulkner began gardening 18 years ago when she moved to Summit Point. A few years ago, friends invited her to use a spot on their farm near Kabletown, tucked a quarter mile down a dusty lane amid the corn and soybean fields. It is a huge garden, nearly 100 feet long and wide, with neat beds of tomato plants, each marked by plastic utensils saved from take-out lunches dug into the soil with the variety written on the handle. The tomato plants were sturdy and healthy.

With no steady water source, Angie collects rainwater in barrels and hopes for the best. She admits, “I bit off a little more than I can chew. I have to remember when doing a garden that you take on only half of what you think you can do.”

As we toured the garden, Angie stroked the leaves of the plants, reciting the name and story behind each variety. “My friend Patty’s sister-in-law in Toledo gave me this Tobolsk, a Ukranian variety. It’s the color of cantaloupe and it is so gorgeous in the can in the window, like a jewel.

“Potato leaf tomatoes are my favorite, The Paw Paw Tomato, named for the town, I got from James Rainey in Martinsburg. Tappy’s Finest and Acres WV are typical West Virginia sloppy juicy beefsteak types.“

Faulkner likes the WV 1884 tomato because “you know the year it was found, and I find it an endearing tale of fortitude.” The Ohio River crested its banks in 1884, flooding Friendly, W.Va. Later that summer someone noticed a seedling growing out of a sidewalk crack that turned out to be a pink beefsteak tomato.

International tomato breeds intrigue Faulkner. “Rouge d’Irak is a red oblate beefsteak type from a French collector. He got it in Iraq before the coalition authority imposed a law prohibiting seed saving, which caused the loss of a lot of varieties. Iraq’s national seed vault also was looted and destroyed in the conflict. (www.geneethics.org.) I’d love to be able to repatriate it!”

The list goes on: Negro Azteca, a black cherry tomato, Lithuanian Crested, wedge shaped, like a hatchet, the tasty Russian Malachite Box, an incredible emerald green inside, Joya de Oaxaca, pink on the bottom, yellow in the middle, with green shoulders, like a rainbow inside, and the pale green White Queen that makes a beautiful marinara sauce, “with the basil leaves floating in it looking like gems.”

Faulkener received her Master Gardener certification in 2006, and plans to teach a Master Gardener course in September in Berkeley County. She laughs, “The garden is full of sex and violence, so it gives me lots of stories to tell when teaching the course. I call tomatoes sluts because every seed comes from a different speck of pollen.”

Sixty-five tomato plants produce a lot of tomatoes. One year Faulkner found an outlet at the church parking lot on Mission Road in Shannondale. Soon she had a devoted following. “I’d just sit there and people would come by regularly for their favorites.” Since she bought herself a farm down in Somers County, she has less time and seeks a partner to help with the project.

This July, the USDA warned that a devastating and highly contagious tomato blight is sweeping the northeast and mid Atlantic. If our local farmers are not spared, tomatoes will be in short supply and very expensive. We can be glad for seed savers and tomato breeders like Angela Faulkner, who are keeping alive thousands of wonderful varieties and the genetic richness that insures our food supply.