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.

Not me John. It could have been Craig since he got the seeds for it in 1990 from Barbara Lube who had originally gotten them from Charlie Knoy. Craig first listed it in the SSE Yearbook in 1992. I haven't kept my old SASE catalogs so I don't know when Jeff McCormack, the original owner, first listed it. Why don't you ask Craig first and if he doesn't know then maybe the current staff there does re their records or you can contact Jeff himself and see if he remembers. Carolyn

colorado, What I grew in '91 is the same that TOm Hauch got out of the SSE Yearbook and others were growing and listing it as well. I said above that I compared my 91 with Tom Hauch's current stock and they were identical. I'd said above that after Tom sent seeds to Steve Miller at the Landis Museum that it was Steve who got the background info. There are NO seeds that came forward directly from about 1865 in a direct line as far as I know. And Tom can't even remember the name of the SSE person he got the seeds from and clearly others got it from that person as well. I didn't say that as clearly as I should have. RB was listed by an SSE member in an SSE Yearbook. How that SSE member got the seeds is not known. Apparently Steve contacted that SSE lister and found that the variety was knnown to have been grown by the Amish in Chester Co PA. One might assume that the original SSE lister got it from the Amish. You know, I think a lot of these questions would be answered if those of you who still have questions, were to read the article at Victory Seeds on the history of brandywines by Craig LeHoullier. He did the family ones and I provided the info for the ones that were bred or resulted from cross pollinations. Fruit size alone can never ID a variety b'c as I think most of ou know, weather can alter fruit sizes, and so can amendments used. So without doing controlled studies I would not use fruit size as THE determining factor in IDing any variety, Carolyn

It was quite by accident that I came about the Ruumi Baanjan seeds, but I ranked it #3 out of all my tomatoes for taste last year, and my wife ranked it #1. If there is a downside to this variety, it is that there is not enough meat in it to make a good processing tomato, even though it is so thin skinned that a few turns in the blender are all that is needed to have the skins evaporate. Good juice tomato, poor sauce, great fresh eating. About 1/3 of the tomatoes were yellow-orange in a kind of sunburst, while the rest were straight yellow. And since all three plants gave that trait I am wondering if it has something to do with sun or heat. I will grow those seeds (which I separated by tomato color) in different areas of the yard to see how they do.