General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: How A Seed Saver (DU's own NRaleighLiberal) Discovered One Of Our Favorite Tomatoes [View all]NRaleighLiberal
(60,014 posts)by Cherokee Indians "100 years ago" (this was in 1990) - Seviereville, TN. I grew the tomato, it was the first chlorphyll-retention (aka "black" - in this case clear skinned, hence on the purple side) I'd heard of - so I took the lineage and the color, called it Cherokee Purple, and sent it to Southern exposure Seed Exchange.
So weird to walk through farmers markets and see it and realize that it is kinda my fault, in a way!
Seriously, I've been a very lucky gardener - so many people sent me so many great family heirlooms over the years - I got to name and introduce Lillian's Yellow Heirloom, ensure Anna Russian became well known, and so many others - the 1985-1995 period was really when heirlooms started to enter the mainstream and more gardeners started to focus on them...