My neighbor order from Renne's She always had She likes that you can get 3 diferent varieties in 1 pack, I too notice some of her packets had very little seeds in them(the persian cukes)just to mention,we shared seeds so I got pickling cukes I thinks is Endevor or something like that and a trio of Italian peppers so far so good I usually order from Baker's Creek and Johnny's select seeds very happy with both places.

There are three Red Brandywines 1)Original variety from Landis County PA (with links to Amish). This is a regular leaf plant and may be the descendant of "Brandywine" sold by seed companies in the late 1800s. Amish bought seeds from the company and then someone got seeds from Amish families later, and even later than that it got to the seed company (from a nonamish source) that originally marketed it so is it an Amish Heirloom?. This variety is in fact somewhat rare because the market was flooded with #2 Red Brandywine for a while while the only one small heirloom seed company sold the original. 2) Red Brandywine, regular leaf. Not Landis strain. hit the market in recent times from parts unknown to me (some commercial seed farm distributed it to several seed venders). 3) Potatoleaf Red Brandywine. Mislabeled variety from Seeds by Design seed farm. Unusual in that it is one of very few varieties (only one on the market now?) having red fruits on a potatoleaf plant. All of the pink potatoleaf varieties originated with Dorris Sudduth as a family heirloom (at least 100 years ago by now). Seedsman Ben Quisenberry in Ohio got seeds from her and distributed them, but it is probable that there was some crossing in Quisenberry's garden and the variety was not stable, so from that point on several strains of the pink have developed. One of the best of these was stabilized by a small seed company on on Long Island and is known as Brandywine Sudduth's strain 9or Quisenberry strain). The modern term "Brandywine" refers to the pink potatoleaf variety. Others are "Red Brandywine". Anything else with Brandywine in the name is a cross with Brandywine or Red Brandywine as a parent. Shah was a sport of Mikado (somatic mutation changing color from pink to yellow). Both are potatoleaf, and neither is red so they could not be parents of Red Brandywine. Mikado was one of the earliest pink potatoleaf commercial varieties, so it could be the origin of the Brandywine grew by the Sudduth family, but since the names are not the same it is only speculation, and there is no way to link it to a specific breeder or seed seller.

I still maintain the faux red brandywine PL that I got from Chuck Wyatt's site in 2002. It is a very good flavored tomato that produces huge flattened fruit up to 2 pounds. I need fresh seed this year so it will be in my garden again. I also grow the true Red Brandywine which is an excellent all around red tomato from 12 ounces up to about a pound. I had a variant plant in 2008 from supposed Red Brandywine seed that produced huge fruit well over 2 pounds. I saved lots of seed and will grow it out this year to see if I can stabilize it into a large fruited variety. It is listed on my website as Beefywine for the time being. DarJones

Pink fruit potato leaf plant is true "Brandywine", aka Brandywine Sudduth strain. "Red Brandywine" is something else, unrelated. It came from [possibly the Amish] Landis Valley PA. "Brandywine" was grown by the Sudduth family in Tennesee. ******** I don't think I'd equate Brandywine with the Sudduth strain these days as being the TRUE strain b/c there are several other strains out there and more to the point just the name Brandywine doesn't equal Sudduth b/c the generic name Brandywine can mean any of several strains, not just the Sudduth/Quisenberry. Doris Hill Sudduth gave those seeds to Ben quisenberry and he gave his whole collection to SSE in 1980. While it would seem natural to equate with the Brandywine River Valley in PA, there's no documentation that says that. The information about Brandywine in the SSE catalog re Johnson and Stokes listing it is dicey since there's only a line drawing and no color is mentioned and those of us who have seed the info/picture from that catalog cannot confirm that what's shown is PL or pink and it's probably RB. ******* All of the pink ones are the more or less the same thing [same flavor etc] just with different strain names they picked up along the way depending on who grew the seeds. There are three "Red Brandywine"s on the market. The real one from Landis Valley, and two imposters, one regular leaf, and one potato leaf. The imposters made their way to a lot of, maybe most of, the seed venders out there. So if you have Brandywine, and it is pink, it is the real deal, and if you have Red Brandywine that does not say Landis on the package/tag it is probably not the real deal Red. ******* First, I've grown several different strains of Brandywine and just can't agree that they all taste about the same. Here's the story on Red Brandywine. It was first gotten out of the SSE Yearbook by Tom Hauch of Heirloom Seeds in PA who still considers it his signature tomato. He gave seeds to Steve Miller at the Landis Museum where they try to collect Amish varieties. It was Steve Miller who did the background work that led to our knowing that this is the only variety with Brandywine as part of the name that could be traced to the Amish in about 1885 as I recall. There are many sites with true RL RB, Sandhill Preservation is one of them and there are others so Landis does not equal the only true RB. Most of the discussion has centered on the situation at TGS where Linda did get her RB from the Landis Museum, but it isn't a strain, there are no strains of RB, and it isn't the only true RB being offered as I just indicated. So one can't equate Landis with true RB. And yes, at TGS if you want true RB you need to get the one with Landis as part of the name b'c as I and others have pointed out she also lists a RL and PL RB and neither are RB and the source was Seeds by Design in CA. I've urged her to say they aren't RB, but so far I haven't been successful, but I'll keep trying. ( smile) ******* The potaoleaf red is supposedly a decent tomato, and unusual for being a red fruit potatoleaf. Backlash from this marketing mistake may mean that if it does not get renamed it will be taken off the market and face extinction. Again, referring to primarily TGS, the main reason that Linda hasn't dropped the wrong PL and RL falsely named RB's is b'c many folks do like them. And no, it won't get renamed, heaven forbid, and it won't be taken off the market b'c Linda can have her subcontracter produce new seed any time she wants to. And there are other PL reds out there as well at different seed sources and also traded back and forth between some folks and also in the SSE Yearbook. I've known Linda since the early 90's and consider her a good friend and have sent many many OP varieties to her for trial. She's one of the nicest, most honest persons I've met in my heirloom tomato career. And I could make that same statement for the owners of a couple of other small family sites where I've known the owners for many years. Carolyn, no time to edit, have to go watch the Wimbledon Willians final. Bye. LOL