At last...

[Roger]

Finally, after a little over three years, AHSC has a web message board!! Thanks everyone!

As an introduction, I have been a Life and Founding member of AHSC since it was started... I am co-chair (along with Brook) for our annual fall conference held each October in Berea, KY.

My personal passion is heirloom tomatoes. I usually grow out 60-100 cultivars per season -- in my suburban back yard! (I am not totally nuts -- I do sell at local farmers' markets...) This year, i will have about 15 or so Appalachian heirloom tomatoes growing.

My poor seedlings are shivering in a small greenhouse right now -- we just got 1" of snow -- after last weekend's 80º temperatures...

I hope to see a bunch of activity here...

-Roger
"I never met a tomato I didn't like -- then I went to a grocery!"

[Alan]

Were glad to have you here Roger along with Brook! Great folks and a great orginization which I plan on joining soon and which I encourage others to help support and I am proud to offer a place for your guys and other preservation orginizations to represent themselves. If you guys know of any more Organizations who want a space here, please contact them and talk to them about it and I will set up a space here for them too!

That's quite a large growout each year!!!! This year we are edging up on close to 500 varieties. Some for production, some are specialty/seed, and some are increadibly rare and being grown out for research/seed.

I know what you mean about your seedlings, we didn't get the inch of snow here in Washington County Indiana but we did get flurries and the cold temps. MY seedlings are good and warm in the greenhouse, but I made a bad fertilizer mistake the other day and gave my poor seedlings a bit of a burn ! However I think they will be ok. Hope the sun shines on us both again soon!
-alan

[brook]

Just for the record, and because he understates it, Roger is my good right hand in AHSC, and much of what we accomplish would not happen if it weren't for him.

If I had ten members like Roger we would own the world!

[vgary]

Hello Roger, Alan, Brook and other posters!
Thanks to Alan for providing the AHSC a place to meet and share information. I look forward to exploring all the other interesting sites/topics.
I support the efforts of AHSC and participate however I can and when my health permits. I am interested in saving all seed varieties endangered of being lost; my special interest is in growing and saving Heirloom Tomatoes. I am especially interested in Kentucky Heirloom Tomato varieties. I am discovering that I am unable to grow all the tomato plant varieties (60/70) I germinate and save seed, so I have engaged "foster" growers for my plants the last several years. At least seven gardening friends have taken on this responsibility. Four individuals are growing a rare winter squash each and Southern Exposure Seed Exchange is growing four of the rare squash varieties. Interns are hand pollinating those four varieties and growing them.
For those of us who are growing older and encounter physical limitations don't always perceive things as they are and have difficulty understanding that. It is so good to know that others care and express that concern in kind gestures.

I continue to search for new Heirloom tomato varieties; that is what makes my life interesting!
With appreciation to all of you!
Gary
Louisville, Kentucky