An interesting and entertaining tomato story made the news cycle a few weeks ago – the
LOST IN SPACE TOMATO
Specifically, NASA astronaut Frank Rubio misplaced a couple of Red Robin tomatoes on the International Space Station. What happened to those tomatoes was a mystery for 8 months, but the mystery was finally solved!
No need for me to re-write the story; read all about it at these links:
https://www.livescience.com/space/space-exploration/nasa-astronauts-finally-find-1-inch-tomato-that-was-lost-in-space-for-8-months
https://www.wionews.com/science/iss-discovers-tomato-which-remained-lost-in-space-for-eight-months-667098
https://www.cnn.com/2023/12/08/world/tomato-frank-rubio-space-station-nasa-scn/index.html
Not that anybody asked me, but I would have concurred: Red Robin produces a lot of little tomatoes in a tiny little space – a great choice for a space tomato!
Coincidently, this variety was the headliner for a Delectation of Tomatoes blog post in 2017:
https://delectationoftomatoes.wordpress.com/2017/04/19/first-ripe-tomatoes-of-2017-red-robin/
On a related subject, January through March are the busiest months of the year for filling seed requests, and I am very grateful for all of the support! This type of work (procuring, propagating, promoting, and sharing seeds of thousands of heirloom tomato varieties from around the world) cannot be done without the support and encouragement of hundreds of gardeners.
This type of work does come with some unexpected challenges, however. With around 25,000 batches of tomato seeds, harvested over 15+ years, organized into about 35 boxes — well, one can only imagine how easy it is for a packet of inventory seeds to get lost. Especially since I have not yet finished the 2023 inventory and integration — or even the inventory and integration of the 2022 seeds! So a given packet of inventory seeds could be in any of at least five batches of boxes:
2021 seeds and older
2022 seeds
2023 seeds
Pre-packaged seeds (a small percentage, unfortunately)
The box of packets from yesterday’s seed packaging marathon.
The box of packets from today’s seed packaging work
Other temporary locations – challenging my memory…
Case in point, about 4 months ago, a packet of inventory seeds of a popular variety, starting with the letter W, just completely disappeared. Literally hours spent/wasted, looking everywhere. I had to list it as “sold out” until I had seeds from 2023 ready to go.
Then, out of the blue, a few days ago, that lost inventory seed packet should up, in the box containing varieties starting with the letter “F”! Talk about lost in space! And this is far from the only such incident. If you only knew how easy it is to misplace a packet, and how hard (not to mention frustrating…) it can be to find it! So many ways.
Anyhow, that’s my little “lost in space” story. There’s nothing too exciting about photos of packaging seeds. But here is a photo of my display table at the Utah Farm and Food Conference in mid-January:
It probably goes without saying, but it took many days to prepare seed packets, drive to, attend, and clean up from the conference. But it was very enjoyable to interact with many other gardeners from the region! My vocal cords were worn out within an hour, and I could hardly speak above a whisper by the end of the third day. Those muscles just don’t usually get much exercise…
Speaking of exercise, I just don’t get nearly enough of it during winter months. Packaging seeds and preparing labels just doesn’t count for the full-body exercise that my mind and body crave! So, over the past few weeks, rather than crashing (on the bed) from exhaustion upon returning from the post office every afternoon, I have been steering the vehicle to other places. Exploring and walking/jogging (alas, I used to run marathons…) for up to an hour at a time. Following are some photos from my wanderings in the area. For more about the local coke ovens, here is a Brick Beehives story, and lots of photos (285 of them as of this writing) uploaded to:
Still have lots of tomato processing work to do, and the window is closing rapidly, as spring approaches. Getting some great help with seed packaging! Many thanks to all who support this effort at: Delectation of Tomatoes, List of Tomato Seeds Available.
Delectation of Tomatoes, etc. 