Tom Wagner Visit, Part 1
Certainly one of the highlights of my recent visit to the US was seeing Tom Wagner, and some of his trial gardens.
I spent most of two days with Tom, and while I saw so much and spent a lot of time talking with Tom, I have two main sets of pictures in my camera, so I will split these over two posts.
This first post is on the various lines of tomatoes I saw. Wow, Tom is really working on a number of exciting lines of tomatoes!
Tom has been doing a lot of work recently with both blue tomatoes and blight resistance, as well as lots of other things like his well known Green Zebra tomato and related lines and crosses.
One of the things you may notice in these pictures of blue tomatoes, are the degree of blue color. One of the things I find interesting about the blue color, is it’s primarily a reaction to sunlight that the tomatoes turn blue. So, if the tomatoes have this gene, they won’t develop much of the color unless the fruit itself is exposed to a lot of light.
Another characteristic of the blue is it protects the tomatoes against sunscald! I’ve started to notice sunscald on my tomatoes over the last couple of years, and I think it’s the result of thinning ozone over Europe. This is the first I’ve heard of tomatoes being resistant to sunscald, and I think this is the kind of trait that could become important as climate change becomes more of a reality.
The blue lines are also rich in anthocyanins, and probably other nutrients, which are increasingly being lost in our modern diet lacking in colors.
In my opinion, this was one of the more exciting lines Tom was working on, a blue cherry tomato. Rich in anthocyanins, and well suited for making a sort of dried tomato-raisin as well as sauces and other things.
Here’s a blue line that still has a few undesirable genes… Would you buy a tomato that had devil’s horns? I think this is one of the earlier blue lines Tom is working with.
Bank Fees and Currencies in the US and Europe
Bank Fees
One of the things I was astonished at during my recent trip to the US were bank fees. At least in the Washington/Oregon area, and I assume the rest of the US as well, they are everywhere!
Since my bank has some fees when I use my bank (ATM) card or credit card in the US, I was seeing fees added to fees, and it really added up! During the 10 days we were there, we probably paid US$50 in bank fees alone. It was a standard $3 to take a maximum of $300 from a cash machine (ATM). Paying with a credit card often cost an extra dollar or two, especially to fill the tank in my car, and 45 cents or so extra for an ATM card.
From my bank, there were no direct fees to use a credit card, but on currency conversion I lost a few percent. My bank charges about an initial $2 or so to use a ATM card in the US, plus a percentage, plus a few percent for currency conversion. Including fees on each end, it cost about $5 to make a $50 purchase with my ATM card!
I could escape the fees on the US side by making a supermarket purchase with an ATM card, and asking for cash back, but I still paid my own bank fees for this. In general, the cheapest way was for me to pay for things with a credit card, where I would only pay a few percent for the currency conversion.
One of the things I found very annoying was the cash machines would only give me $300. If we were able to get $500 or even $1000 in one go for our $3 fee, we would have been able to get enough cash for our whole trip at the start and saved a lot of fees.
Here in Amsterdam, I can get €1000 (about $1300) in one go, if I use a cash machine from my own bank. I’m not sure what these machines will give to foreign cards, but perhaps it’s closer to the $300 limit in the US. I don’t think any local machines charge any fees for foreign cards, but I could be mistaken.
In any event, I don’t pay any fees to use any cash machine to withdraw euros, anywhere in Europe. I also don’t pay any fees for an ATM card purchase. I do pay a fee of about $25 per year on my bank account.
In the US of course banks make a lot of fees with overdraft or returned check charges. This is where you pay for something with a check, and there are not enough funds in your account. These fees are really exorbitant, and we don’t have these here. By now all payments are electronic, we don’t use checks anymore, and if you don’t have enough funds the payment simply doesn’t go through. Generally here you negotiate an overdraft limit with your bank, for this you only pay interest for the days your balance remains negative and otherwise no fees.
A few years ago I did see one ATM machine here in a McDonalds saying it charged a €2 fee. This is the only machine I have ever seen in the Netherlands with a fee notice on it. I didn’t see anyone using it that day, and I haven’t been back since so I don’t know if it’s still there. I doubt they got much business, and I suspect under new EU regulations this isn’t legal anymore.
Currencies
As useful currencies, the US dollar and Euro have diverged in a way.
When the Euro was introduced, the value of the dollar and Euro were pretty close to 1 to 1 in terms of exchange rate. In particular since Obama came to power, he made some policy decisions that led to a weakening of the US dollar. For what it’s worth, I think he probably made the right decision at the time, but it does mean things have become a lot more expensive in the US and the exchange rate has fallen. In fact the value of the US dollar on international markets has been on a decline for some time. At the same time, the paper and coin currency hasn’t been updated to reflect this!
In my opinion, the dollar has become a really difficult currency for day to day use. It’s very annoying for example to count $1 bills and pennies. There is the long running debate over the $1 coin in the US, and really I think the time has come to start thinking about a $5 coin instead or in addition. The usefulness of the penny ended decades ago, and it’s really time to get rid of that too maybe even together with the nickel. Is it time to simply drop a zero off the end of the US currency, and reissue notes and coins in the same denominations? It would be really handy if ATMs dispensed bills larger than 20s, and $100 as the largest note does not really fit in well with international standards. In fact, maybe it’s time for a complete overhaul and rethink of the currency design. These ergonomics are probably why most transactions these days in the US seem to be made with plastic.
On the other hand, the Euro has probably increased in value more than they expected at the time of issue, and has some problems because of it’s high value.
There are a number of cash machines in Amsterdam that will not dispense notes smaller than €50, which is about US$65. You don’t make any friends here if you show up first thing in the morning at a farmers market with a €50 note in your hand. Generally the stand operators simply can’t give change for them, until they’ve had a chance to collect some smaller money from other customers. They can be a problem to spend other places as well.
The €500 note (worth about $670) also turned into a bit of a disaster for Europe, and even the €100 note (worth about $135) is a little difficult to get or use.
When first introduced, the €500 note disappeared as fast as they could print them. Even now, they aren’t completely sure where they all went. The last I heard they think almost half of them are in Spain. When it was introduced, people exchanged it with their hoards of $100 notes. It became the black market currency of choice. With the €500 notes, it’s possible to carry something approaching $20,000 in a space the size of a cigarette package, making it very easy to carry over international boarders in large amounts. After a year or so of printing them as fast as they could, only to see them vanish, I think they finally decided not to put any more into circulation. There are now about 3 of these in circulation for every EU citizen. They are extremely difficult to get, and if you have one your only option is probably to take it to a bank because I don’t think anyone else will accept it.
Tom Wagner Schedule Update
If anyone is interested in Tom Wagner’s tour schedule, I’ve just updated this earlier post with more information. I think the published schedule is pretty complete now, unfortunately the information I have is in the local language in each place. If you don’t mind going through the French, German, Danish then English, the information is all there. If anyone has any questions, please let me know!
Tom Wagner in Ireland
Madeline of Brown Envelope Seeds left a comment on my last post reminding me and others about Tom’s workshop in Ireland. For those of you who might attend the UK workshops, the workshop in Ireland the weekend before may be an attractive alternative. You could even consider the weekend in Ireland, followed by just the Saturday in Oxford, if you wanted to get the best of everything.
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.
Tom Wagner
Update: 21 September — more countries added to Tom’s schedule.
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):
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
