Rare tomato seeds on sale. You could preserve a variety for the next generation!

Dagma Lacey and Gary Ibsen run Tomatofest, a great source for heirloom, open pollinated tomato seeds. Photo courtesy of Tomatofest.

If you love growing tomatoes from seed, and would enjoy preserving a rare variety, check out this list of seeds from TomatoFest Heirloom Tomato Seeds which are being discontinued.

Gary and Dagma, who run the company, have dedicated their lives to making open pollinated, heirloom tomato seeds available for gardeners.

As the price of growing tomatoes commercially has risen, they've had to make hard choices about which varieties they will be still be able to offer.

Check out this long list of unique tomatoes and order a few packets. Saving the seed is easy, there's a tutorial in this link too.

When I worked for the Tribune-Review I wrote an article about Tomatofest in 2019.

It began like this-

Gary Ibsen was surprised to hear from me as he picked up the phone in his California home. We had scheduled a morning interview, but neither of us realized we were in different time zones. The 74-year-old co-owner of TomatoFest was in the middle of his morning ritual with the love of his life, Dagma Lacey, and asked if I could call back in 30 minutes.

“At 6:40 a.m. I start to make Dagma’s tea,” he says. “At 7 a.m. I slip into the dark bedroom, put her pot of tea on her bedside table, then wake Dagma with a kiss, and whisper, ‘Good morning, Dagma. Here’s your tea to start what I hope will be your best day.’ Then I close the open window, turn on the heat, or start a fire in the wood-burning stove, fluff up her pillows, give another kiss, then return to the office.”

Here's a link to the full article.

You could preserve some of these tomatoes for the next generation.