The story goes something like this.... When I find a more accurate account I shall edit.
Anyone who ever played the game telephone knows how a story changes through its many telling's and the 1930’s where a LONG time ago.
Near the end of the Great Depression My grandparents and another family had one car among about 9 people, they loaded it up and set out for the Great Northwest from somewhere near Nebraska. They took turn riding in the car on the car and walking beside the car.
Grandpa Bertal carried with him some special tomato seeds and when they settled in Bonners Ferry, Idaho he planted them, and shared the seeds with others. The tomato’s story was at that time, not told to his kids. Perhaps they ate them for years not knowing he carried them and found them special enough to save and share.
Well Grandpa died in the late 80's I believe, and our family had not seen these tomatoes since long before that... he either never mentioned this story of bringing them and he also grew to old for gardening. So the tomato's were no longer known to my family.
Last year My mom had her 40th high school reunion up in Bonners Ferry, while there she met a nursery man, who was so pleased to see a relative of ol' Bertal. He told her the story as he knew it of these special tomatoes and gave her a few precious seeds.
She shared with me a few of these and of the nine I planted 3 came up.
What I find interesting about this tomato versus other varieties is the leaves. They are very wide and fairly smooth. I have yet to eat one but as you can see from the photo, I have 2 growing and more to come…
I would love to know if this is a regular known Heirloom, for certainly it must be an heirloom if he saved the seeds from his farm back in the 1930’s. Or is it one of the many, that may have died off if not for the seed savers of the world.
I will of course save my seeds like a good steward of the earth would do….
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