Maybe next year we can plan something.  I’m always looking for groups or people to team up with in order to make a larger event, so if anyone has any ideas please let me know.

Some of the people who attended or expressed interest in the past were:

Daughter of the Soil
Veg Plotting
Spadework
Fluffius Muppetus
Manor Stables Vegetable Plot
MustardPlaster
Joanna’s Food
The plot thickens
A Blog Called Fuggles
Ben – Real Seeds
This and That
Baklava Shed Coalition
Guardian Gardening Blog
Horticultural
Soilman’s Allotment Blog
Kitchen Garden in France
Tater-Mater
Observer Organic Allotment Blog
Gwenfar’s Lottie and other musings
Down on the Allotment
Organic Allotment
Urban Food Gardening
Brown Envelope Seeds
Fennel and Fern
Ewa in the Garden
The Cats Tripe
Radix
Heritage Seed Library

Alas I didn’t have time to organize an event in the UK this year, but maybe next year.  If anyone has any ideas for speakers or anything else related to an event in 2011, please let me know, either in a comment here or private email.

For a high resolution downloadable file to view directly on your computer, click here.

I haven’t carefully inventoried the seeds I have, but I think I have some of everything he talks about here. I’m pretty sure more is available on request. I probably have other seeds he didn’t talk about here, and I’ll have to ask Tom about these.

I also have a large number of tomato seeds, but Tom didn’t have information on these available on that day.

In the past I’ve offered a number of seeds to anyone reading this blog, but in this case it’s a little different.

These seeds are still on offer to anyone, but the intention is when you receive them you agree to participate in a breeding project that goes along with them. That means committing yourself to learning something about the genetics involved in the project, and reporting back to Tom on your progress.

When Tom left the seeds with me, I think he was thinking that members of the workshop or contacts within Europe would be the ones receiving the seeds, but as we know this blog has readers in most regions and many countries of the world. As far as I’m concerned, and I think Tom too, anyone who’s genuinely interested in participating in a breeding project is welcome to seeds. I’m personally willing to send them anywhere.

So, regardless of where you live; Europe, North America or elsewhere, if you’re interested in joining a tomato or potato breeding project, please get in touch! There’s really a lot of very exciting biodiversity to work with here.

General Discussion TPS and Potato Berries

In this video Tom presents a lot of general and interesting information on potato plant genetics, as well as seed saving and cleaning techniques.

In this video Tom mentions using Tri-Sodium Phosphate to clean his seeds. I’m not sure if it’s available outside of the US, but if it is you can probably find it in a hardware or DIY type store. It’s a very strong household cleaner, not very friendly to the environment, and a component of laundry soap in many places.

For a high resolution downloadable file to view directly on your computer, click here.

Growing from TPS

In this video Tom discusses how to grow TPS as well as offering a wide range of tips and tricks for growing and harvesting potatoes in general.

For a high resolution downloadable file to view directly on your computer, click here.

Seed Saving Demonstration

This video, filmed in the men’s room at the East Oxford Community Centre the day of our workshop there, is a demonstration of how to save seeds from potato berries. I’m sorry the camera wasn’t working well and I had to chase Tom around a bit…

For a high resolution downloadable file to view directly on your computer, click here.

Here’s a video of Tom explaining basic tomato genetics, as well as giving ideas on how people could use some of his varieties and crosses to teach themselves and others about plant breeding. Tom offers some of his ideas for creating a publicly available collection of tomato genetic resources, as well as some research people could do if they wanted to help him collect more information.

For a high resolution downloadable file to view directly on your computer, click here.

Hairy Potatoes

In this video Tom explains the genetics behind hairy potatoes, and talks about King Hairy or was that King Harry…

For a high resolution downloadable file to view directly on your computer, click here.

Together in the room was myself, Steph, VP of Veg Plotting, Vicki of the UK Heritage Seed Library and Ben of Real Seeds. VP and Steph didn’t say anything, but at various time you can hear the rest of us speaking.

I edited out a few parts of it, because the conversation drifted from the topic at hand.

Do you still have seed that may have originally been ordered from this catalog? Please get in touch!

For a high resolution downloadable file to view directly on your computer, click here.

Please consider this video a bit of an experiment, and I would welcome any comments you might have. Does it play well with the speed of Internet connection you have? Would you like more quality at the expense of speed? Are the the the scenes edited okay?

I still have material with Tom talking about things like tomato genetics, potato seed saving (TPS) and planting hints and tips, Tom’s potato pedigrees, and probably other topics as well.

Tom left me with a large collection of tomato and potato seeds (TPS). On request, some more material is available from Tom. In addition the hope is as a number of people start working on breeding projects, we share experiences and plant materials. Please contact me or Tom if you’re interested.

Again, many thinks to everyone who came and made this a big success.

Speakers

VP of Veg Plotting explained her air pot trial to us.  Like many things it sounded like the air pots were good in some circumstances, and not so good in others.  Have a look at her blog for a post with all the details.

Emma had a Q & A session for everything she has been working on in recent times, including her garden, chickens, book, blog, podcast, and lots more!

Soilman made a video of part of it.

Ben of Real Seeds demonstrated how it was impossible for most GM crops to yield higher than ordinary crops, because they are generally forced to produce some additional product like pesticide, which must in turn result in lower yields.  His picture shows how a normal plant (top) makes use of 1000 hours of sunshine, and the same GM plant has to split this resource.

Vicki of the Heritage Seed Library talked briefly about who and what they are and do.

Dr. Simon Platten talked for an hour about his research of UK allotments from an anthropological perspective.  He also brought in his bean collection that he collected from seed swaps across the UK demonstrating just how there is a real biodiversity available for those who are willing to look for it.

Finally, Tom gave really quite an astonishing account of his work in breeding tomatoes and potatoes.

Seed Swap

Somewhere in between all these presentations we found time for swapping seeds.  Among things on offer were a large collection from the Heritage Seed Library, elephant and other garlic, blight resistant potatoes, tomatoes, peppers, beans, onions, sorrel, and much more!

Lunch

We also took a short break for lunch, and enjoyed omelets, bread, cheese, home grown tomatoes and apples, potato salad, welsh cakes, home made cookies, gluten free apple cake, a home grown cucumber and more!

Sunday Workshop

Here are VP, Ben and myself at the Sunday workshop, examining a pile of potatoes.

The workshop was no less intense than Saturday, but we decided we had more or less finished by 2pm.  Lots more seeds and planting materials were available in the workshop, and I hope to make some of these materials in addition to some videos I took available via this blog in the course of the coming weeks and months.

Directions to the event

Until now I haven’t given very good travel directions to the event, but this is available on the Internet so some of you already know.  Here’s a good map showing the location.

If you have any questions, please let me know!

Everything Confirmed

Many thanks for those of you who made offers of practical help or had suggestions on the outstanding items I mentioned in the last update. We have AV equipment, and for the Sunday potato breeding workshop we have a room booked at the East Oxford Community Centre.

Lunch

For the Saturday event we are expecting that you bring your own lunch, and share it with others if you like.  Some very nice food was brought last year!  I understand not everyone has a garden to bring food from, and supermarket food is fine too.  Further I realize some people will travel from a distance, or don’t feel comfortable preparing food.

Since I need to bring food for Steph and I as well as Tom, I will make it a point to bring some extras in case some of you don’t come with your own. One way or another, there will be enough food for everyone, so don’t be concerned if you can’t bring any.  Think of it as an opportunity to show off if you want to, and in any case enjoy other peoples offerings!

There is a nearby Tesco on Cowley Road, if you need to pick something up at the last minute.

Space Available

When organizing something like this it’s always hard to plan the right amount of space.  This year we did pretty well, if not overestimated slightly.  There’s plenty of space for those confirmed as well as anyone else who wants to come.  This applies to both the main Saturday event, as well as the Sunday all day potato breeding workshop.  You’re welcome to attend both days independently, so if you only wish to attend the workshop on Sunday, or like most of you only attend the Saturday event, these are both fine.

Concessionary Rate Available

We’ve received a donation to cover the costs of offering a concessionary rate of £7,50 (half price) for the Saturday event.  The only condition is this must be booked in advance and there are a limited number of places available.  Please contact me if you’re interested.

Sunday Potato Breeding Workshop Costs Confirmed

Six people are now confirmed for the Sunday workshop, plus Tom.  The cost for those attending is £20.  The concessionary rate is £10, and if you’ve already requested the concessionary rate for the Saturday event, I’ve put you down for this here as well.

We have the lounge area of the local community centre reserved for this from 9am to 5pm.  No specific arrangements have been made for lunch on this day, so we may need to go out somewhere, find a local supermarket, or if you prefer you can bring your own lunch.  With a bit of luck, there will be some leftovers from Saturday!

Time Change

In case I forget to mention this on Saturday, those attending the Sunday workshop should be aware we change to winter time early Sunday morning. This will make it seem like we start an hour later than we really do.  Make sure you don’t come bright and early, and an hour before the rest of us!

Presentation Update

Emma Cooper suggested that rather than making a presentation, she could do more of a Q&A session.  She suggested maybe we would have questions about her book, publishing in general, podcasting or blogging. Now everyone has homework to do before the meeting.

Please come with questions for Emma!

Donations

The basic costs of both events will be covered, or nearly covered, by those attending.  This includes room rental, miscellaneous costs and Tom’s travel, lodging and food costs for the UK part of his European journey.  Therefore, if you pay the entrance fee, you pay your share of these costs and further donations are not necessary.

Last year a number of people offered donations.  If you would like to make a donation, I would be delighted to accept it.  First of all, I will use this to cover any shortfall in funding the event itself, but like I said we’re pretty close to even on these costs so this may not be necessary.  Otherwise, I will pass this money onto Tom who will use it for his breeding and travelling workshops.

Tom is a public domain plant breeder, meaning he does not charge for his breeding work, and does not make any royalties from it.  He fully supports himself on other sources of money, and would very much welcome donations from others to help out in his work.

I’m looking forward to seeing everyone!  It’s going to be an exciting day.

The weekend before our Oxford 2009 meeting Michael Soth has organized Thriving Sustainably, a sustainability event also in Oxford.  It sounds great to me, and I wish I could go.  If you live in the area, be sure to put it on your calender.

Michael and I briefly discussed the possibility of combining his event with our meeting, but the scheduling didn’t work out.   It’s clear we have a lot of the same goals in common.

Here’s the Thriving Sustainably leaflet with more details of the events planned, and here’s their website.

If anyone can help with donations as well as promoting the event, Michael would like to hear from you!

In Oxford we will have other speakers and Tom will have much less time to talk and explain his breeding efforts.  In addition, if you attend both days in Oxford you either have to travel back and forth or pay your own accommodation nearby.  It sounds like camping is on offer from Brown Envelope Seeds.  Also, since I don’t live in Oxford I’m not really in a position to host a full weekend event in a rural setting like Madeline can do in Ireland, meaning the atmosphere will be different.

The choice is yours.  I’ll certainly be delighted for anyone interested to attend either or both days in the UK, and there are still spaces available.  We’ll certainly have lots of interesting people, as well as things to talk about and do.

Through the sponsorship of Kokopelli Seeds of France and many other hard working people, not the least of which being Lila Towle of Frøsamlerne, Tom Wagner will soon begin his trip through Europe.

Final touches are being put on Tom’s schedule, but already details of the following events have been published (sorry, these are not all in English):

France

Switzerland

Austria

Denmark

Germany

Ireland

Tom will conclude his European tour in Oxford, England where he will attend Oxford 2009, our annual bloggers meeting on the 25th of October and potato breeding workshop the following day.

In all Tom will visit 10 countries over the course of about two months.  When I have some more specific information about his schedule, I’ll try to post some more details.  In the meantime, there’s still space both at our Saturday, October 24th meeting as well as the potato breeding workshop.

Below is a description of the workshops.

Tomato and Potato workshops 2009

Tom Wagner will be holding a series of unique global workshops starting in Europe during September and October 2009.

The venues for the events will take place in France, Belgium, Switzerland, Austria, Denmark, Germany, Ireland, and England. No ONE workshop held will be identical to another. By using the internet and couriers all attendees will be not only able to make work and talk about it, but will be able to modify each other’s work electronically but also on physical pieces of potatoes and tomatoes, especially seeds.

This year, the format for the workshops will change to enable the development of ideas over a longer period. To this end, in September and October this year, there will be mostly weekend events in each location comprising lectures/presentations and informal workshops during which projects will be set to be developed over the following days, months, and even years.

The workshops are open to all but there will be very limited numbers in each location. Anyone who is familiar with past workshops will be aware that we usually try to keep the numbers of participants low so we can enter into meaningful dialogues with everyone on an individual basis. If you want to find out more about the workshops we’ve held before please visit Tom Wagner’s blog site.. http://tater-mater.blogspot.com

As these events will be more complicated than the previous ones there will likely be many questions so I will set up a FAQ page on my website over the coming weeks.

If you are seriously interested in taking part, please email your intention in English, French, German, or Danish, and do try to leave questions that you wish Tom would address.

Some of the topics that will be covered will be:

The history of Tater Mater Seeds

The development of some of Tom’s classic tomatoes such as the Green Zebra, along with dozens of other varieties that are available in the open market.

Tom’s other tomato varieties include Banana Legs, Green Grape, Vintage Vine, Green Sausage, Green Bell Pepper, Lime Green, Schimmeig Creg, Brown Flesh, Verde Claro, Gold and Green, Greenwich and Elberta Girl.

Some of Tom’s potato varieties include Viva el Sol, Adirondacksen, Azul Larga, Awol Dude, Nordic October, Baby Banana, Skagit Valley Gold.

How Tom is rapidly accumulating a large germplasm of potato clones and TPS (True Potato Seed)

Hands on demonstrations of how to cross tomato and potatoes, many times with actual plants and with video and power point presentations.

Tom will talk about how he has taken just a few varieties of potatoes and tomatoes and created a vast diversity of seeds for the future. By using heritage potatoes and tomatoes, and adding some newer releases to cross with, Tom is working with these to create tomorrow’s heirlooms.

Tom will discuss making F-1 hybrids that anyone can make over and over again. He will talk about making backcrosses and taking each year’s seed increase to the filial level of F-5 on tomatoes which indicates a rather stable line. Tom will illustrate how his potato lines have better berry production which aids hybridization efforts.

Tom will talk about the nutriceuticals of tomatoes and potatoes; the essential nutrients that these crop could contain with a bit of breeding expertise. Enhanced antioxidants, anthocyanins, carotenoids, lycopene, are but a few. Fast cooking times in his new potatoes clones that cook in 5 minutes in boiling water will be featured in his topics.

Through a variety of breeder/grower initiatives beginning with the workshops, there will likely be many cooperatives dealing with plant breeding and variety development starting with seeds of Tater Mater.

These workshops will be part of an effort to keep seeds free, legal and available for people to grow in their gardens, farmers to grow on their farms, and not controlled by major seed companies, universities or governments.

A concerted endeavor will be launched to work with local heritage varieties to incorporate them in variety improvement and to avoid GMO’s at all levels.

Potatoes can be grown from true seed and avoid the virus contamination of tuber trades. TPS is but one way to foster diversity and reach local needs for flavor, storability, yields, disease resistance, all with organic growing methods

The workshops will features many ways to look at seed extraction, seed saving, clonal selection.

Single seed descent and bulk population breeding and variety maintenance will be discussed.

The workshops will try to feature local gardens and local growers. The goal is to find ways for this to help Tom in his work and how he can help local growers in return.

Video and audio recording will likely be part of many of these workshops. Some of those may be shown at succeeding workshops to show the growth of the information exchanges. A few clips of how to cross potatoes and tomatoes may be linked to the Tater Mater blog. Many still photos will be shown of his tomato and potato varieties.

Each of these workshops will invite anyone to submit questions to answer during the workshops and/or later in an interactive format. With sufficient interpreters present, these answers will be delivered in the original language.

Workshop fees will go towards Tom’s travel in Europe and to free up important new seeds to be introduced. As Tom devotes more and more of his time to being a seed ambassador of sorts, these fees will help continue his workshops towards the future.

The goal of Tater Mater Seeds is to get young people involved in plant breeding, therefore, if Tom can be a mentor and teacher for many potential plant breeders, justice is done.

During Tom’s 56 years of breeding plants, he has not only proven that anyone can be a home garden plant breeder but will show many how they, too, can be plant breeders. His unique collection of proprietary seeds of tomato and potatoes will be a great resource for plant breeding groups in each nation.

Tom has created hundreds of varieties of tomatoes and potatoes, including potatoes totally resistant to blight. He is presently working with 100,000 lines of potatoes.

Tom started out breeding plants on his family farm near Lancaster, Kansas. He kept a family heirloom bean alive and growing each year in his gardens from a few beans his great grandmother brought to the USA in 1888. He kept growing new selections out of his breeding work even while he obtained degrees in Anthropology, Botany, Geography, and Education. His career includes farming, managing garden centers, managing greenhouses, potato buyer, potato and tomato breeder under contract, teaching, seed catalog, and a wide host of other professions. He has offered many of his creations in Farmers’ Markets and has introduced his varieties to other organic growers.

Tom stays busy with his TaterMaterSeeds forum and is a moderator on the Tomatoville.com for CrossTalk and Potato sub forums.

Tom currently lives in Everett, WA. His plots are all organic and shuns any chemicals applied to the soil.

Tom Wagner
8407 18th Ave. West
7-203
Everett, Washington 98204
Phone +1 425 512-0313
Mobile +1 425 894-1123

Is £15 too high for you?  Are you unable to attend because of this, or is it even a small problem to pay this much money?  Even if you are happy paying this, do you think it might be too high for other people?  Does anyone feel we would attract more people if I offered a lower rate?

I basically have no profit goals in this meeting, nor did I have any last year.  In particular, I am one person with just a personal bank account, not any kind of registered organization.  I’m not eager to be seen by tax authorities as making a profit, and since I have no idea what will happen next year I don’t want to keep anyone’s money for a next event that might not even happen.

I also expect, like everyone else attending, to pay my own costs, including transportation and entrance fee.

At the same time, I’m not really eager to put a lot of my own money into this, and I hope to roughly break even.  This is about where we stand at the moment financially.  This was my goal last year too.  If significantly more or fewer people come this could change, but it’s how things look now.  Honestly, as much as anything, this is to ensure these meetings can continue in the future if we choose, because if I have to put a lot of my own money into them I’ll be less likely to want to organize them.

Given everything I’ve said here, I can’t really afford to offer a reduction in the entrance fee a lot of people would want to take advantage of, and instead what I’ve focused on is keeping everything as cheap as I could for everyone.

If you look at what’s being asked for Tom Wagner’s workshops elsewhere in Europe, they are mostly all considerably more expensive, and I’m under a little pressure in this way to try to raise more money in order to help fund Tom’s breeding and touring efforts.  I feel pretty strongly however, that if I did ask more than £15, some people would really be unable to come and this would significantly change the nature of our meetings, making them much more elite.

Besides making general comments here or in email, please feel free to contact me about your personal situation.  If you would like a reduction or would like to attend for free, I’d be glad to hear this and will try to work something out.  Likewise, if you would like to make a donation towards paying other people’s costs or to help Tom’s breeding efforts, please let me know this too.