The Kenny (aka "Winchester Golf Course" and "Country Club" tomato) finally has made an appearance in our garden this year, thanks to a very generous donation from Mischelle Hodgkin this spring.

The Kenny is named for Winchester native and resident Kenny Phillips, a former naval gunner's mate aboard the USS California and employee of the Marine Logistics Base in Macon, Georgia. Mr. Phillips worked for the Winchester Country Club Golf Course and for many years grew the tomato in a plot just off the course. In 2006, the year he passed away, Phillips gave Will Hodgkin, Mischelle's husband, an aspirin bottle containing the seeds of The Kenny. Mischelle has grown them out from that first gift of seed and was kind enough to share a Kenny with me.

Vive Kenny!
The Kenny was heeled in on May 24, fed twice, and mulched on May 29, 2012.

Adopt-A-Mater

This year the Clark County Public Library staff and friends will attempt to make AppalSeeds, our annual regional Heirloom Tomatoes workshop, complete self-sustaining.

"Marge! Have you heard? We're going to be ADOPTED!!!"

Every year the cost of quality heirloom seed has increased, and in the last three years, the heirloom seeds we like to use are no longer being carried by reliable companies in bulk. In fact, the number of seed-savers out there seems to be dwindling again and varieties seem to be dropping in general after a peak.

So this year we've launched Adopt-A-Mater, whereby interested library staff and associates are allotted an heirloom tomato to take care of in order to produce seeds for the programs in 2013. Most of the varieties are unusual, many are endangered, and yes! you can still eat the tomatoes.