Danni Girl, Aunt Ruby's German Green is one of the heirloom tomato varieties often found on seed racks. When I first started growing heirloon tomatoes in the early to mid-1990s, I bought seeds of Brandywine, Aunt Ruby's German Green, Mortgage Lifter and Big Rainbow on a seed rack in a Fort Worth feed store, although I don't remember if they were labeled as heirloom seeds or if they were just on the regular rack with all of Burpee's other seeds. I do know that by the late 1990s, Burpee had a separate seed rack of heirloom varieties that sat right next to the 'regular seeds' and that seed rack had about 30 or 35 varieties of heirloom veggies and flowers labeled as heirlooms and in seed packets that were slightly different in appearance from the regular packets....they had an 'heirloom' look to the seed packets. I haven't looked very closely at Wal-Mart's seed racks the last couple of years since most of what I grow cannot be found on seed racks, but I do think that the selection of seeds from Ferry-Morse is a better selection that what they had back when they carried Burpee seeds. To be fair to Burpee though, I think their selection of seeds on the seed racks at Home Depot is a better selection of varieties than they had at Wal-Mart too back when Wal-Mart carried Burpee seeds. I am sorry to hear you lost your seeds in a recent move. It is quite frustrating when something like that happens. A lot of us are 'seed collectors', you know, and always buy far too many seeds and have lots of extras sitting around. Why don't you post a list of seed (flower, vegetable, herb) varieties you're looking for to grow this year, and maybe some of us will have some of them and would be willing to share? I know that I'd be happy to send you some seeds if I have any of the varieties you're looking for. It is expensive to try to replace your whole seed stash all at once. I keep my seeds in a big plastic storage tote in the tornado shelter about 90% of the time---that way, if our house ever gets hit by a house fire or tornado, my seeds are safe. Of course, if the house were damaged or destroyed, I doubt I'd be worrying about planting a garden for a while, but at least the seeds would be waiting for me when I was able to get back to gardening again. Anyway, if you want to post a list of seeds you'd like to have, I am sure many of the generous gardeners here would be willing to help you rebuild your seed supply. I feel sure of that....because I know the folks who post here have big hearts and are always willing to help out one another. My memory is not so great either....and I notice it is worse and worse every year. You don't suppose we all keep getting older every year, do you? OK, so maybe we do keep aging.....we're aging just like a fine wine. LOL Dawn

Well, heck. It's Aunt Ruby's, after all. Duh. I cut it down to the top of the old container and buried the stem in Jiffy Mix in a deep McDonald's drink cup. It's "up to its eyeballs" in mix with a baggie on top in my kitchen window. This has been a real learning experience for me. It's good to know there is hope after they get too tall. Sunny

I bought 2 "Green tomatoes when ripe" One was Aunt Ruby's and the other was German Giant. Wife wanted to give one or the other to her twin sister, soooooo I did a lotta research on both, ---taste, production, reviews etc etc. I decided to give the Aunt Ruby's to Sister in Law. It was a "Hard choice", but it looks like I made the right choice as the German Giant is loaded with nice size fruit as are most of my other maters. I live in Yorba Linda, (close to Disneyland). I bought the green mater when ripe so wife can make "Real Fried Green Tomatoes", I read that for a "True Southern version" of fried green tomatoes, one should use a green semi ripe mater, rather than an unripe red one----We shall see! Gary

Edie, for pictures go to Google, select IMAGES and then enter Aunt Ruby's German Green. You can also go to websites such as tomatogrowers. com and look at the pictures of the green when ripes. They develop an amber color starting at the bottom and are soft to the touch which indicates when they are ripe. Trial and error will help you decide when you want to harvest them. Carolyn