Seeds of Gratitude
A gift of free seeds, from me to you
June is my month of anniversaries.
This June marks six years since my partner Caryn and I bought our forever home in Kyneton. Angus was two and Emily still in utero. Now they are both in school and our Melbourne life is a distant memory.
It marks 11 years since I started my Leaf, Root & Fruit business. I recently re-read last year’s post reflecting on my first 10 years of running the business. It reminds me of the bumpy ride and how much I’ve grown – both in the garden and personally.
It also marks two years since I sent my first email from the Substack platform. I’ve showed up and emailed my subscribers every week, without fail. I’ve now shared 171 Substack articles to help you to grow your own food (access them all here). I’ve enjoyed the ongoing connection that I’ve fostered with you. Thanks for sharing the journey.
But I won’t stop there. I’ve been busy planning and writing and have some detailed posts that I’m very excited to share with you in the next few months:
My much anticipated annual vegetable harvest chart and my personal planting plan
A few articles on designing backyard orchards
“How to grow” guides for tomatoes, beetroot, cucumbers and pumpkins
My Q and A posts are proving very popular, and all through the year my inbox is flooded with your questions (find out how to ask your own gardening questions here). My readers are a curious bunch and answering your questions inspires my own sense of wonder.
Articles like the June Garden Update and Planting Guide – which is free to everyone – wouldn’t exist without the support of paid subscribers. I’m a paid writer, it’s my dream job, and it’s all thanks to you.
To express my gratitude, I want to send paid subscribers a gift of tomato seeds saved from my garden.
This is something that money can’t buy
Read on to find out how you can order a packet containing seed from one of these three varieties.
Black Cherry: There are a few different varieties masquerading as Black Cherry, but I’ve finally found the Black Cherry: super sweet, resistant to splitting and highly productive. Now that I’ve found the one, I’m not letting it go. Yes, you can buy Black Cherry tomato seed, but often it’s an imposter. These seeds are the real deal Black Cherry and something that money can’t always buy.
Jaune Flamme: The vines of Jaune Flamme are very susceptible to early blight, so in humid areas don’t rely on them to be overly productive after January. But in Kyneton they are one of my best producers and one of the first varieties to ripen. The orange golf ball sized fruit is a favourite of many during taste tests.
Wapsipinicon Peach: The fruit are pale yellow, which can make it tricky to spot them on the vine. The skin is slightly fuzzy, like the skin of a peach, which may help to deter Queensland Fruit Fly. The skin is thin and prone to splitting, but gosh, I love the flavour.
This trial could lead to more freebies
This is an opportunity for you to trial one of my favourite tomato varieties this summer. But I’ve never done this before so it’s a trial for me too. There may be some teething issues with technology (fortunately I’m a better gardener than an IT technician). I think I have enough seeds to share with paid subscribers, but these days you are quite the crowd, and I have no idea how many of you will take up my offer. It’s a numbers game. First come, first served, so get in quickly.
If it all goes smoothly, then I’ll do this again in future.
Because of biosecurity risks and quarantine requirements, I’m sorry, but I can’t post tomato seeds to Western Australia, Tasmania or overseas. Only residents of the mainland Australian states and territories of Victoria, New South Wales, South Australia, Queensland, the ACT and the Northern Territory can claim the seeds.
How do I claim my free tomato seeds?
I’d love to send free tomato seeds to every one of my subscribers, but I only have limited stocks, and all that snail mail is going to cost me a bomb. I’m limiting my offer to paid subscribers only. If you’re not yet a paid-up supporter of my work, then there’s still time to change that. Jump over the paywall to request your free seeds.