Telling the story of New Jersey agriculture through seeds.

I’m self-publishing a book that will be out Fall 2024 titled Iconic Jersey Tomatoes, An American Folklife and Foodway, Terroir sets the place for culture, and seeds are an intersection of nature that allows for local ways of life and food. My book is the Jersey tomato version of that.

After researching the collective generational experiences around Jersey tomato breeding, farming and canning, this storytelling project is the next step in my three R approach to this history. Respect it, Revive it. Reinvent it.

Since seeds are nature’s intersection that allow for local ways of life and food in a local terroir, the seeds that are left from Jersey’s agricultural history allow us to respect the history, revive it, and reinvent with modern sensibilities.

It’s much better for that to happen with seeds in the soil than with seeds sitting in collections or seed banks.

It’s even better when the seeds are grown and saved in the terroir where they were developed.

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Current projects

Panmure Seed Gardens Tribute Garden
Maule Seed Company was based in Philadelphia, PA until it merged with Burpee in 1947. They had two experimental farms, one in the King of Prussia area in Pennsylvania, and one situated near Newfield, NJ as the caption on photo below states.

From the deed of the purchase of the property by Wm H Maule, and the photos from the catalogs the Panmure Seed Gardens was likely in Franklin Township, in Malaga, NJ. This is is in Gloucester County.

Sweet Amelia’s Market and Kitchen has changed the local food dynamics since they opened in 2021. Sweet Amelia’s is a sustainable oyster farm from Lisa Calvo, and Melissa McGrath is the brilliant chef who brings it with the freshest local oysters, meats, poultry and vegetables in a classic South Jersey seasonal roadside stand.

They are less that five miles from the likely location of Panmure.

I’m growing a garden there with two of the three vegetables that are left with Maules name attached to them The three are Maules Success Tomato, Maules Hot Pepper and Maules Philadelphia Lettuce. The garden included the Success tomato and hot pepper along with the Kille #7 and Burpee Sunnybrook Earliana, two tomatoes that originated in Gloucester County, NJ that were revived by this project.

Other Jersey originated tomatoes in this garden includes Levari’s Devil Dog, a local family with a farm market’s family tomato, the Atlantic Prize tomato, an Atlantic County heirloom tomato, two tomatoes from Joe Bratka of Elmwood Park, Mule Team and Great Divide, and the Jersey Devil (JD) tomato from Martin Sloan who developed the JD in Meutchen, NJ.

Two other Jersey heirlooms are there, Emerald Okra introduced by Campbell Soup in 1950 and developed in Riverton, NJ and the Jenny Lind melon, a green muskmelon with a netted skin and bump on the bottom grown in South Jersey since the 1850’s.

This garden is part of the Our Gardens network of Peace and Unity Gardens from Damon Smith. Volunteeers from Our Gardens help set up and plant the garden. Smith selected eight varieties of basil from his vast global collection of biodiverse seeds, Gregorian parsley, and a tomato from Iraq to be unify this garden with his Peace and Unity Garden at Reed Farm in Egg Harbor Township.

Reed’s Farm edition
Reed’s Farm is home to the A Meanigful Purpose non profit.

From their website;

A Meaningful Purpose, Inc. is a 501c3 non-profit organization founded in 2020
to address the needs of food insecurity, soil regeneration, and community inclusiveness in Atlantic County, NJ.

This mission is carried out at the historic Reed's Farm, continuing a legacy of local food production in the region.

The farm operates year-round utilizing organic and regenerative practices, hosts a sanctuary for farm animals, and provides educational and vocational programming to local schools and organizations with a focus on individuals with cognitive disabilities.

We aim to provide a community hub that inspires all who gather here to engage with nature and celebrate its healing capabilities.

This year we started with seeds from the Garden State, Atlantic Prize, Great Divide tomatoes, along with the Emerald Okra, and Jenny Lind melon in programming beds that Reed’s uses for their educational and vocational training with schools and organizations.

With the history of Reed’s Farm of providing local production in the area, it’s a natural fit for the seeds of Jersey heirlooms to part of their programming. It fits with our mission to reinvent the history with modern sensibilities.

We also provide asparagus seed with intention of developing local asparagus seed production connecting to Jersey’s asparagus history, along with Jersey Devil seeds as a potential model to replace San Marzanno tomatoes as the go to tomato for sauce production on the farm.

A true San Marzano is product of it’s original terroir in Italy. Anything else is a San Mazano variety not grown in it’s original terroir. The Jersey Devil is a fantastic paste tomato developed in Jersey terroir, so it’s appropriate for a local food program to highlight this fantastic tomato grown in its home terroir to take down the San Marzano locally as the go to sauce tomato.

And more appropriate for storytelling project called The Seeds of Jersey Terroir to push for this story to develop. The idea for this project to happen originated at Reed’s in 2023 in a conversation with Damon Smith of Our Gardens while tabling during Earth Day. Smith said we should take the San Marzano down with Jersey Devil because of the terroir difference. I agreed, and with the help of Pine Barrens Post who had Jersey Devil plants that they were selling. They ended up growing the tomatoes that provided the seeds for this model.