Rebellious Women T-shirt WINNERS are Faith, Deborah, and Fiona:
Faith perrino-DuBois said on 12/11/13 at 2:32 am:
“Adorable! I’m planning to grow the kind that’s juicy, red and doesn’t involve slave labor or chemicals! Heirlooms, preferably … (sm)”
Deborah McKissic said on 12/11/13at 6:59 am:
“My little tomato growers would agree! I garden with my grandkids…little Colt who is two and a half and Miss Lyra, who is 4 and a half..they love tomatoes! We grow them and eat them fresh from the garden…nothing but organic..what else would you feed them? Their favorites are one from my friend, Lisa, the seedwoman at Amishland Seeds….little white rabbit..a sweet, little, almost white, round tomato…and Miss Lyra’s favorite…”sweet pea”(Baker Creek heirloom seeds) her nickname…they grow in clusters like grapes…blueberry size..perfect for picking and eating from “Grammie’s” gardens and their own raised beds..oh, we love our tomatoes! Organic and non-GMO seed..OMG!! I wear a size medium teeshirt but a large is nice for sleeping in…love what these women are doing…the little white rabbit and sweet pea tomato pack a flavor for such small gems…no garden is complete without a few “to-MAH-toes!!”
Fiona said on 12/11/13 at 9:29 am:
“I love making tomato sauce from home grown tomatoes. It’s great on homemade ravioli. Last year our Romas did really well, and I’m planning to grow even more this year. I wear a size large (probably from eating all that ravioli!).”
Congrats!!! Watch your inbox for an email from the farm.
And our original text for the contest on 12/11/13 was:
At first glance, you wouldn’t cast Janie Burns and Susan Medlin as rebellious women intent on disrupting a market. But the two leaders of the Idaho-based Tomato Independence Project (TIP) are raising a rather seedy ruckus that’s caught the eye of acclaimed food journalist and sustainable agriculture luminary, Ruth Reichl.
Reichl, former editor-in-chief for Gourmet magazine, restaurant critic for the New York Times, and co-producer of PBS’s “Gourmet Diary of a Foodie,” noticed the group’s t-shirt on a recent trip to Idaho. She liked the rebellious design and manifesto (“End the Tyranny of Tasteless Tomatoes”) so well, she decided to include it in an upcoming “Things I Love” feature on her popular website’s 2013 Holiday Gift-Giving Guide.
“This is a fantastic opportunity to sow the seeds of tomato independence by selling t-shirts to fund the rebellion,” said Janie Burns, an Idaho organic farmer.
“We wanted to find a tangible way for people to participate in growing the local food economy in the Treasure Valley [Boise, Idaho, area]. When researching what it will take to meet our goal of having 20% of our food consumption be local by 2020, we found that the average American eats over 90 pounds of tomatoes per year. That’s a lot of tomatoes! And nothing tastes better than a tomato fresh from the garden in the summer, and nothing worse than a rock-hard tomato in January … We’ve decided to make it our goal to have as many people as possible grow and/or eat local, fresh tomatoes in 2013. To start things off, we’re going to partner with local nurseries to provide “TIP kits” to anyone who wants to participate. These kits will contain things like seeds, growing instructions, the TIP logo, etc.”
Show your love for homegrown tomatoes (and locally grown food) and support the project with this 100% ring-spun organic cotton t-shirt. You can order t-shirts online at tomatoindependenceproject.com.
The back of the t-shirt says “End the Tyranny of Tasteless Tomatoes.”
Modeled here by the lovely MaryJanesFarm design studio crew: Karina Overfelt, Megan Rae, and Saralou Houlihan, who want you to know:
We ARE doing it! (Ending the tyranny.) Join us in telling it like it is. We have three T-shirts ready to go under your tree this year. All you have to do is tell us in a comment below what variety of tomato you plan to grow this coming summer and what size T-shirt you’d like. We have one S, one M, and one L to give away. Karina is modeling the SMALL, Megan the MEDIUM, and Saralou the LARGE (clockwise from top). In five days, we’ll pull three names from our apron pocket and let you know who won!
Adorable! I’m planning to grow the kind that’s juicy, red and doesn’t involve slave labor or chemicals! Heirlooms, preferably…
(sm)
Finally,a serious effort to end tasteless tomatoes!! Given my small garden space and the endless barrage of tomato pests, the only tomatoes that I seem to be able to grow organically are Roma Tomatoes. The past two years, they seem to be hardy enough to withstand the heat, humidity, and pests in my tiny front yard plot. So, Roma tomatoes it has to be in 2014! I wear a medium Tshirt. Thanks for this fun and important information!
I am planning on planting mortgage lifter tomatoes. I love their sweet smell & taste. We will start the plants from seed while we’re in Florida. (gives us a boon to growing). I wear a large tshirt.
I have been wanting to try San Marzanos forever. That is one of the varieties I want to grow next year. There is nothing like a tasty, juicy tomato 🙂 (M). Thank you!
I was so excited about this post. I am not a big Tomato eater but love to grow my own and make sauces. My family love little sweet ones to eat right off the vines. So I am planning on growing the Amish Paste and Beams Yellow Pear. Here in southwest Idaho we have a very short growing season so I try to pick ones that have the shortest growing season. I will be passing this on to my friends and family about this cause!!
My little tomato growers would agree! I garden with my grandkids…little Colt who is two and a half and Miss Lyra, who is 4 and a half..they love tomatoes! We grow them and eat them fresh from the garden…nothing but organic..what else would you feed them? Their favorites are one from my friend, Lisa, the seedwoman at Amishland Seeds….little white rabbit..a sweet, little, almost white, round tomato…and Miss Lyra’s favorite…”sweet pea”(Baker Creek heirloom seeds) her nickname…they grow in clusters like grapes…blueberry size..perfect for picking and eating from “Grammie’s” gardens and their own raised beds..oh, we love our tomatoes! Organic and non-GMO seed..OMG!! I wear a size medium teeshirt but a large is nice for sleeping in…love what these women are doing…the little white rabbit and sweet pea tomato pack a flavor for such small gems…no garden is complete without a few “to-MAH-toes”!!
I am going to try some heirloom and some roma’s. I would like to grow as many as possible because we love to have tomatoes with everything in the summer time. Small tshirt for my daughter who is in college and loves a good cause.
I will plant the heirloom tomato Cherokee Purple, along with Arkansas Travelers. I may experiment with some new varieties as well. My tshirt size is small.
I am growing organic roma tomatoes and organic chadwick cherry tomatoes. I wear a medium tshirt.
Roma for sauce ! and Salsa oh my!
San Marzanos thrive in my garden, organic of course.Their flavor is sweet. I’ve also been successful with the Romas. Our season has been too short in the past few years to try the larger heirlooms.
I am the little seed company that Debby M got her favorite ” Little White Rabbit” tiny tomato from. It happily self seeds , so no need to plant that again!
I am very excited about 3 heirlooms I got from a lady in Kentucky. The ” Large Red” a very rare Shaker heirloom, ” Aunt Lou’s Underground Railroad” that relates directly to slaves and civil war times and a humongous 1-3 lb. pink called ” Kentucky Pink Stamper” Sorry, but since I grow up to 40 kinds of tomatoes per season, it’s hard to narrow it down to just one. I would be thrilled to wear your beautiful tomato tee-shirt in Small .The Tomato Independence Project is such a fine idea ! I want to back that 100%.
I believe in the cause so much that I grow my own!!!!!
For some reason I didn’t have good luck with tomatoes this year. Next year I’ll try again. I like to have three types — large, plum and cherry/grape. I’ll take a medium, thank you.
I usually grow a varety from roma to cherokee purple to mortgage lifter! Love Tomatoes! I wear a large btw.
I’ve grown my own tomatoes for years and am always sorry when the end of season comes for fresh, sweet wonderful tomatoes! I can them, but they don’t quite work in my favorite caprese salad!
We have our garden mapped out to start planting spring. I can’t wait to have my own fresh veggies. The last time we planted tomatoes our squirrels stole them. so we opt out doing them last year and enjoyed tomatoes from friends that grew them. I plan on doing a variety of tomatoes, they are easy and taste so good just picked off the vine. I also wear a Large. bashfulhal(at)hotmail(dot)com
I love heirloom tomatoes! Next year we plan to grow Green Zebra, Black Cherokee and heirloom yellow pear, and whatever else suits our fancy – MmMm! (Med.)
I hope to try several heirloom varieties this year including mortgage lifter, black crim, german green and more. I will probably also put in a few Romas. Love them maters! I wear a medium.
i always garden with organic methods. i ♥ rabbit poop. my favorite tomato is brandywine but i also grow BRANDYBOY becuz they are lots more prolific and taste great.
i was going to let a tomato grower use my land to grow on once, he had a contract to sell them in kansas city for $100,000 & i was going to get $10,000 for helping. they only are interested in the tasteless type. we were going to grow them in the missouri sunshine and harvest them ripe, but they were still going to be the horrible tasteless mountain fresh, or mountain spring variety. i could not talk him into growing any heirlooms or any other kind of tomato with them.
i did not want him to use any pesticides – i was ok with the fertilizers he was going to pump into them but i didn’t want to kill the beneficial insects. so that is what killed our deal. he would no do it without chemical pesticides……and i needed the $ but i would not do it with.
so i guess i am a tomato rebel, too.
I love making tomato sauce from home grown tomatoes. It’s great on homemade ravioli. Last year our Romas did really well, and I’m planning to grow even more this year. I wear a size large (probably from eating all that ravioli!)