Seeds of change

The Tomato Man helped start heirloom movement, passed along the love...

Sometimes, when she's working in the greenhouse or moving flats of tomato plants, Lisa Merrell thinks about what it will be like when The Tomato Man is gone.

Before he was even sick, she thought about what it would be like losing her dad.

"It's like I'm saying goodbye every day," she said. "I've said goodbye so many times that I don't know what it will be like when he is gone."

Nothing's been left unsaid. She's told him how much she loves him, how he's helped shape her life, what he's meant to her and how he always made her feel like the most special person in the world.

But it doesn't make it any easier. She's watched her dad, Darrell Merrell, known by backyard farmers all over Oklahoma as "The Tomato Man," go from 300 pounds to 150 pounds, from full-of-life to just hanging on.

Darrell was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in October 2006. Chemotherapy helped, and even put him in remission for about a month, but the cancer came back, this time even more aggressively, leaving him unable to take care of himself.

He recently began hospice care at Grace Living Center in Jenks.

Back home

When Lisa moved back to Tulsa from Seattle in 2003, she soaked in everything her dad taught her about the business.

She and her partner, Bibi Becklund, worked side-by-side with Darrell, sowing seeds, saving seeds and babying the heirloom tomatoes that fill the greenhouse and acreage in southwest Tulsa.

Lisa knew he was grooming her to take over the business, but she figured that would be in 15 years or more, not four.

Before he was diagnosed with cancer, Darrell changed the name of the business from "The Tomato Man" to "The Tomato Man and Daughter," making Lisa his partner.

Even though he couldn't shake the anxiety brought on by his diagnosis, Darrell felt at ease about the business that he had poured his heart into over the last 15 years.

"I know that the 15 years he worked the tomato plants were the most gratifying of his life. It's the most fulfilling thing he ever did, working with these plants," Lisa said. "And I know he has confidence in me to carry on what he started."

Doughnuts to tomatoes

Before he was The Tomato Man, Darrell was the Doughnut Man, and owned doughnut shops in Houston and Oklahoma City.

When he found out that his mother and sister were sick, he sold the doughnut shop and moved back to the 10-acre homestead where he grew up to care for them. It was then that he started growing tomatoes.

"But they didn't taste like he remembered," Lisa said.

He decided it may have been because the seeds he was growing were big-name commercial hybrids, not the old-time tomatoes his mom and dad planted.

The tomato seed he particularly wanted to plant was the Sioux -- a plant that went from the most popular tomato in Oklahoma in the 1950s to nearly extinct 50 years later.

Darrell talked to seed savers all over the United States, Canada and Mexico until he found a man in Norman who shared 15 Sioux seeds.

Once those tomatoes were ripe, Darrell bit in and knew that was the flavor he was missing -- that old-fashioned twang, thin-skin and meaty middle.

In 1993, Darrell began selling his tomatoes at the flea market at the fairgrounds. The price alone caught people's attention.

"He was selling them for $2 a plant, and people were say ing, 'But I can get a six-pack for 89 cents at Wal-Mart,'" Lisa said. "They would say, 'What have you got in there, gold or something?' "

One by one, Darrell explained the value of an heirloom tomato, eventually winning legions of fans and leading the heirloom movement in Oklahoma.

In the next few years, Darrell was featured in newspapers, on TV news and even in the foodie bible, Gourmet magazine.

He grabbed people's attention with his overalls, straw hat, pipe and Okie ways, and he gained their respect with his passion for the science behind and salvation for Oklahoma heirloom plants.

Saying goodbye

Last week, when Lisa opened The Tomato Man's stand for the season, longtime customers who hadn't heard about her dad were stunned.

One man, who had driven from Arkansas to get the first pick of his favorite tomato plants, cried when he heard that the man he had come to call a friend was so sick.

But they're also glad to know that the big, juicy tomatoes they grow every year aren't going away -- that the seeds are safe with his daughter.

Lisa feels lucky to have found her passion for farming at such a young age, compared to her dad who discovered his passion late in life.

"He said to me, 'Lisa, isn't it great to know your dad is such a late bloomer.' And I told him, 'Dad, some people don't get to bloom at all.'

information

You can purchase The Tomato Mans DaughterÂs heirloom plants at 2208 W. 81st St. South (6/10ths of a mile west of U.S. 75) from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. seven days a week through May, or until they sell out.

Or look for them at the Sand Springs Herbal Affair on Saturday and at the Jenks Herb and Plant Festival on April 26. For more information, call 446-7522 or go to www.tulsaworld.com/tomatoman.