Cory McInnis | Contributed
You say To-may-to, I say To-mah-to – is it a fruit or a vegetable? These are just a few well-known quotes about the versatile tomato.
Whether picked right off the vine or on a toasted sandwich, all the fruity tomato needs is a bit of salt and pepper, and it’s bursting with flavour.
This month’s Sooke Garden Club speaker is Mary Alice Johnson. She’s owned ALM farm and Full Circle Seeds for more than 35 years. Her background spans years of teaching organic farming, courses at Camosun College, and working with young people on her farm.
Johnson has grown tomatoes since the late 1980s and grows and saves seeds from around 40 different open-pollinated varieties. Such as striped, yellow, green, black and orange.
The Sooke Garden club members will be able to meet in person on her farm Wednesday, April 27, where they will be given a presentation on growing tomatoes and saving their seeds. Johnson will break it into five stages: seeding, transplanting, planting into the ground, training, and seed saving.
Also, take note the Sooke Garden Club’s annual plant sale is back on, so be sure to mark your calendars for May 7 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Evergreen Centre.
For more information on the Sooke Garden Club, please check out its website at sookegardenclub.ca or email Sookegc@gmail.com
editor@sookenewsmirror.com
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Cutline for photo: Mary Alice and her gorgeous tomatoes