An email from a gardener on Salt Spring Island took me back to the early days of growing tomatoes in my current garden when he wrote: 鈥淢y favourite variety is Alicante 鈥� a rather small fruit but very prolific. I know people who make a special trip over from Salt Spring each year to buy transplants from Le Coteau Farms in West Saanich.鈥�
Alicante and Moneymaker, both English heirloom tomatoes, were at one time regulars in my tomato patch, but over the years, the urge to experiment has led me on to other tomato adventures.
Moneymaker is still listed in the Salt Spring Seeds and West Coast Seeds catalogues. WCS describes the variety as vigorous and productive. SSS describes it as a good multi-purpose tomato with a delicious taste.
Alicante, which not too long ago was a staple listing on many seed-company lists, is hard to find currently. Two previous sources in our region are discontinuing the listing. Moneymaker is a similar variety.
A beautiful drop-in. Gale has written about a less than wonderful black cherry tomato harvest, and goes on to say: 鈥淢y zinnia is a different story. It鈥檚 a pink beauty about 100 cm tall and loaded with flowers 鈥� 12 at last count. The plant showed up in a small bed last year and I saved seeds to plant this year. I鈥檝e gathered seeds again this year and hope to grow more next year.鈥�
Gale鈥檚 photo certainly looks like a zinnia, a tall and sturdy one with beautiful flowers. I wonder where it came from. Over many years of growing zinnias, I鈥檝e never had any self-sow, or 鈥渧olunteer鈥� in my garden.
Still, the flowering plant presents interesting possibilities.
Gale could keep saving seeds from the best of the plants each year to develop a personalized strain of 鈥淕ale鈥檚 Mystery Zinnia.鈥�
Many keen gardeners develop their own strains of flowers and vegetables that way. The wondrously large and lovely heads of romaine lettuce I buy at my local farmers鈥� market are the product of seeds the grower has selected and saved over the years.
It鈥檚 a nice change to enjoy Maria鈥檚 giant, crisp romaine lettuce. I grow mainly the more buttery textured miniature 鈥淟ittle Gem鈥� types of romaine, which are delicious but very different.
