By Michelle Fabio

A recent KCAU-TV report says that sales of vegetable plants will continue to rise throughout 2009, showing a further trend in home gardens.

Horticulturist Dale Lindgren of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln West Central Research and Extension Center cites two main reasons for the increased interest in home gardening: food safety concerns and the poor economy.

One of the plants especially benefiting from more people gardening is, not surprisingly, our beloved heirloom tomatoes.

Are you and/or others you know gardening more because of the economy or food safety concerns?

By Michelle Fabio

One of the most popular stories to appear recently in northern California’s Red Bluff Daily News is Geoff Johnson’s piece about tomato sales booming despite the harsh economy: Economy wilts, but tomatoes bloom.

As Johnson notes, sales of fruit and vegetable plants tend to rise when the economy is faltering, and, indeed, at the local Red Bluff Garden Center, tomatoes have been the most popular plant.

Jeff Brooks, the center’s general manager, knows this trend well, seeing the same increase in tomato sales Read the rest of this entry »

By Michelle Fabio

After a decade of civil war, the East African country of Burundi is looking to tomatoes to help get its economy back on track.

Thanks to a $3 million United States project known as J.L. Limited (John Leopold Limited), Bujumbara, Burundi’s capital city should see work begun on a brand new tomato paste company before the end of the year.

The project, made up of twenty local organizations that grow rice and tomatoes, would give the region its first opportunity to preserve the many tomatoes grown locally; each year, Burundi produces 250 tons of tomatoes, which are harvested year round.

Read the rest of this entry »