Wendy saves the seeds of all our tomato varieties at the end of the growing year, with 33 varieties in total! Some of these seeds have been saved when Wendy was dining out and enjoyed a particular variety, all have been saved for there flavour, colour and cropping ability.
All have a history and a memory for Wendy. Most of these seeds have been grown in our soil for many years and have adapted to where they grow.
Our seeds are saved on paper towel and started in seed trays in August. The traditional day for tomato planting is Melbourne Cup day (first Tuesday in November) although, last summer was a bit late in starting, so our planting didn’t happen until Christmas time.
We will start our seeds off in trays in the warmth of our greenhouse and bring them out about a week before planting to let them ‘harden off’ before planting in our beds.
As most of our varieties are ‘indeterminate’, meaning they like to climb and will continually keep fruiting along the stem throughout the growing season, Wendy and I will trellis these for easy picking and to keep them from sprawling along the ground where field mice like to enjoy them.
If you are dropping in to our Piazza cafe, you might also be able to purchase one of our tomato seedlings for a gold coin donation as Wendy always has extra plants to share with guests or you can enjoy eating our many varieties on our restaurant or Piazza.
