From The Vine
Tomato and other gardening banter from Craig LeHoullier (aka NCTomatoMan)
Welcome!
I'm glad that you found my website! It will always be a work in progress - please email me at nctomatoman@gmail.com if you have ideas for how I can make this site more useful and informative for you. The primary focus will be gardening, and the primary focus of that will be tomatoes. But I occasionally have a bit of this and that to say about other things, like music, movies, coffee, beer, wine - you get the idea....I am never short of definite opinions! (be sure to check out the other pages, which can be found in the pull down menu under "other" at the top of this page).
I seem to be dealing OK with the daily blogging thing - mostly because I always seem to have something to say (and I also have a bit of time to attend to blogging these days...). With gardening season is underway and harvesting about to get into full swing, there should be more of a reason for you to come back frequently!
If you were looking for the old From The Vine page, I've retired it and replaced it with the From The Vine 2011 Vegetable Seedlings page, (it is located as a pull-down from "more...", above).
So enjoy the stay, and please do send comments and ask questions - either through the Blog page, or email.
Added to this page to make it easier to find is NCTomato News - speaking engagements, tomato tastings, etc - just scroll down to find it.
I seem to be dealing OK with the daily blogging thing - mostly because I always seem to have something to say (and I also have a bit of time to attend to blogging these days...). With gardening season is underway and harvesting about to get into full swing, there should be more of a reason for you to come back frequently!
If you were looking for the old From The Vine page, I've retired it and replaced it with the From The Vine 2011 Vegetable Seedlings page, (it is located as a pull-down from "more...", above).
So enjoy the stay, and please do send comments and ask questions - either through the Blog page, or email.
Added to this page to make it easier to find is NCTomato News - speaking engagements, tomato tastings, etc - just scroll down to find it.
NOTE - if you would like to make a donation to my gardening efforts, you can do so using paypal by clicking the button below. Thanks!
About Craig
I've been interested in gardening as long as I can remember. My dad used to take me to Slater Park in Pawtucket, Rhode Island - I rode on his shoulders as he walked through the flower beds and told me what kinds they were. My grandfather had a wonderful vegetable garden behind his house; although I was never thrilled with the sight of so many large spiders, the Dahlias and Sweet Peas were beautiful, his strawberries just incredible - and his tomatoes were the first I was brave enough to eat, probably when I was around 10 years old. So I guess that this is all my grandfather's fault! (His name was Walter Gibbs, by the way).
One of the first things my wife, Susan, and I did after getting married was to rent a plot in the nearby Dartmouth College community garden. That really started it all - in the summer of 1980. It was a pretty standard garden with vegetable seedlings from the local nursery (the tomatoes were Better Boy!). And here I am, more than 30 years and nearly as many gardens later, as excited about digging the dirt, planting and harvesting things now as I was back then.
I've been pretty lucky to have joined the Seed Savers Exchange in the mid 1980s, just as so many wonderful heirloom varieties were emerging from root cellars, farms and garden sheds, making their way back into circulation through the efforts of the many SSE members. Such luck included being sent seeds of tomatoes like Anna Russian and Cherokee Purple (sent to me with no name, just a description) and Lillian's Yellow Heirloom. The realization of what treasures these and hundreds of other varieties were, the urgency to grow them, see them, taste them and share the seeds with others, was what drove me deeper and deeper into this hobby. It is an adventure that always seems to have an exciting new chapter with new things to discover and share. And it is such adventures that I hope to share with you on this website, and in my blog.
One of the first things my wife, Susan, and I did after getting married was to rent a plot in the nearby Dartmouth College community garden. That really started it all - in the summer of 1980. It was a pretty standard garden with vegetable seedlings from the local nursery (the tomatoes were Better Boy!). And here I am, more than 30 years and nearly as many gardens later, as excited about digging the dirt, planting and harvesting things now as I was back then.
I've been pretty lucky to have joined the Seed Savers Exchange in the mid 1980s, just as so many wonderful heirloom varieties were emerging from root cellars, farms and garden sheds, making their way back into circulation through the efforts of the many SSE members. Such luck included being sent seeds of tomatoes like Anna Russian and Cherokee Purple (sent to me with no name, just a description) and Lillian's Yellow Heirloom. The realization of what treasures these and hundreds of other varieties were, the urgency to grow them, see them, taste them and share the seeds with others, was what drove me deeper and deeper into this hobby. It is an adventure that always seems to have an exciting new chapter with new things to discover and share. And it is such adventures that I hope to share with you on this website, and in my blog.
NCTomatoman's Tomato News
Update for Wednesday, May 15, 2013
Well, that's it for our annual seedling sales on Fridays and Saturdays in the spring at the Raleigh State Farmers Market on Lake Wheeler Road. Thanks to all for your support! We still have plants...see the From The Vine page for details.
Other events in the future: Cooking School at A Southern Season on July 14 (will provide link when it is listed), taking a trip to Iowa to attend the Seed Savers Campout the following week (Fri-Sun July 19-21), a few talks at Monticello (September 6, 7), workshop at West Point on the Eno on September 14, and perhaps a trip to the SSE to attend the Tomato Tasting, also in early September, and completion of the text on my first book (on Tomatoes, Storey Publishing)! The publication date for my book will be December 2014.
IYou can now follow me on Twitter - @nctomatoman
Well, that's it for our annual seedling sales on Fridays and Saturdays in the spring at the Raleigh State Farmers Market on Lake Wheeler Road. Thanks to all for your support! We still have plants...see the From The Vine page for details.
Other events in the future: Cooking School at A Southern Season on July 14 (will provide link when it is listed), taking a trip to Iowa to attend the Seed Savers Campout the following week (Fri-Sun July 19-21), a few talks at Monticello (September 6, 7), workshop at West Point on the Eno on September 14, and perhaps a trip to the SSE to attend the Tomato Tasting, also in early September, and completion of the text on my first book (on Tomatoes, Storey Publishing)! The publication date for my book will be December 2014.
IYou can now follow me on Twitter - @nctomatoman
