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91-year-old 'tomato man' shares produce and know-how online

By AMY MCRARY, amymcrary@comcast.net
August 19, 2005

South Knoxville resident Ray F. White knows a lot about the tomatoes he enjoys growing and sharing. For nearly 50 years, he's planted 50 to 100 tomato plants each spring and tended and harvested them each summer. White, who'll be 92 on Sept. 2, doesn't grow other produce. "I'm a tomato man," he says simply.

Bushels of tomatoes come from his garden each year. He doesn't sell them but gives them to friends and family. "I tell everybody I charge them a smile a bag," he says.

White also gives away his expertise and experience with tomato gardening via the Internet. He began an online garden journal on Aug. 27, 2003. Readers have accessed the page more than 39,000 times since. Readers of the journal and his other Web pages include people from Hawaii, Wisconsin, California and Germany.

White writes in his journal every day but Sunday, and his thoughts aren't just about tomatoes. Written in a friendly style as if friends are talking over cups of coffee, the journal includes Knoxville weather conditions and inspirational daily thoughts.

He also maintains a blog, "Dad's Views and Tomato News," as well as a Web page about fried green tomatoes and other tomato recipes, a Web page about tomato gardening, and another Web page about songbirds and roses.

White and daughter Mary White eat tomatoes as often as three times a day in the summer. A favorite sandwich is one or two slices on a hamburger bun spread with a little mayonnaise. He likes green tomatoes, too. Cooked and frozen tomatoes are used in wintertime soups and chili. "I never get tired of them," he says.

To cook and freeze, White recommends skinning tomatoes before putting them in a large pot. Water isn't needed; the tomatoes supply it as they cook. Cook "just a few minutes," he says. Freeze in quart bags.

Each spring, he picks four tomato varieties at Stanley's Greenhouse in Knoxville. This year he planted Better Boy, Celebrity, Burpee and Early Girl. He likes the Celebrity variety, having planted it four to five years. This year, Better Boy is his favorite; he may plant it again next year. He also planted six Brandywine heirloom tomatoes.

White's first tomato gardening was as a 10-year-old helping his father. "He had about 10 plants, I think," White says. White really got going with tomatoes, he said, after moving to his current home in 1959.

He gets to his 30-by-50-foot garden by using a golf cart that was a 90th-birthday gift. Depending on the weather, his tomatoes last until the end of August or into September. As soon as one season ends, he's thinking about the next. "He starts dreaming right away," says Mary White.

Though White has planted as many as 100 plants in previous years, this year he planted 50. "I had to cut back. But if you don't have close to 50, you can't take care of everybody (who enjoys the tomatoes)," he says.

He is thinking of increasing the price of his tomatoes. "I might go up to two smiles a bag,"

 

 

PHOTOS BY J. MILES CARY
NEWS SENTINEL

Neighbors and friends will reap the rewards of Ray F. White’s work in the garden.

Here are tips from longtime tomato grower Ray F. White:

• Plant tomatoes in full sun; he puts wire cages around plants to support them as they grow.
• Plant after danger of frost is gone; Whiteplanted this year on April 15.
• Mulch around plants to help retain moisture and prevent weeds.
• Expect the first ripe tomatoes, depending on variety, 60 to 75 days after planting.
• Plant in good soil. Put a handful of cow manure in bottom of hole dug for plant.
• If soil isn't good, enrich it. White enriched his garden through the years by tilling in cow manure.
• Fertilize plants for about four weeks after planting. White uses Miracle Grow he mixes and sprays on plants with a water hose. He fertilizes when he plants, and then weekly for four weeks.
• Water is a big factor in tomato growing. While how much watering plants need is somewhat weather-dependent, White recommends tomato plants be watered at least twice a week. Most of the time he waters once a day.
• Pinch out side shoots in plants' leaf axles when shoots are about three-fourths of an inch long. To help put energy to fruit instead of getting taller, pinch out top of plant when it has grown four flower bunches.
• Leave tomatoes on vine until ripe.
• Don't refrigerate picked tomatoes. "It takes away their flavor," says White.
  
  Source Ray F. White and his garden journal Web page

 

Used without permission from the Knoxville News Sentinel

http://www.knoxnews.com/kns/home_and_garden/article/0,1406,KNS_312_4012699,00.html