The Stories

The Tomato Project
Diane Dickert, Calgary

This project is sweet, kind and is about caring. It is about artists and anyone eating good food that is not the bland product one receives from major grocery stores. It is about eating from the garden. It began with distributing heirloom tomato seeds and plants to many individuals.

It continued much to my surprise with people having some experiences about their tomatoes. The flavour is intense, the shapes are varied and they are very prolific; some are teeny tomatoes, some are large, some small old-fashioned beefsteak juicy tomatoes, some produce suggestive erotic shapes or join together though they are on separate vines and they collaborate, kind of like artists and dreamers.

You give them a little food (funding) and they grow and produce like crazy. 4 to 5 feet tall! And then if you live in an environment like Calgary with one of the shortest growing seasons in Canada and your tomatoes are hit with a killing frost in June, they just pull up their socks and grow another four feet again. Kind of like artists…

I am inviting artists and individuals across the world to participate. This begins with seeds I have collected,
• in one sunny window place two large pots
• at least twelve inches across and high
• filled with good soil
• gently peel the seeds from the parchment paper (3 or 4 per pot)
• plant your seeds only as deep as they are thick and as soon as you receive them
• keep the soil well moistened (a spray bottle works well)
• be patient, it can take up to three weeks
• once they raise their lovely green heads, keep only one in each pot (I know… terrible situation when you have to remove the other tomatoes from the comfy big pot)
• hoe with a fork [Grandma always said a hoe is as good as a water]
• they grow very high, so be prepared to stake
• if you keep them in your pots and bring them inside, you will still be eating tomatoes in November.
• also by keeping them in pots you can bring them in and out from the cold. (It can snow in July in Calgary)

A Few Stories
In spring 2008, I broke my ankle while gardening. (A mechano set was surgically implanted) Two months with my foot in the air and being iced, I had to depend on my partner, Principal Bassoonist with the CPO, to water the tomatoes. At first he was very resistant, but then upon eating one of the tomatoes became quite obsessed and possessive about their care. These tomatoes will convert anyone to a gardener. In October so determined are the smart Stupice tomatoes that they were producing again. We brought them inside in the big pots. (I have a potagerie AKA a balcony with many big pots) Artists need big pots to play in…

Summer breakfast, lunch and supper at my grandmother’s home in Kamloops, BC would frequently include a saltshaker wandering about the garden eating tomatoes and anything else that was ripe. I was three, as was my daughter, Farah, when she discovered life was a garden. She would be up to her elbows with mud and happy as a toddler can be and Grandma would wash her down with the hose, which Farah loved.

My hairdresser, genius that she is, (where would we be without our hairdressers?), her toms froze almost to the soil of her pot and then it came back and grew another four feet and produced marvelous tomatoes until November. Another friend had a similar situation.

This project is a metaphor for survival, for feeding people or a gift to anyone who really loves a great tomato; please share the seeds.



If you have a chance send me your results, videos, digital stills, recipes, stories or seeds, all are welcome.



Diane Dickert
723 Tavender Road NW
Calgary, AB
T2K 3M5
CANADA
dianedickert@shaw.ca