Tomatoes are a must have in a garden! Tomato plants are pretty pricey, but sometimes necessary. My goal for years is to be a real farmer who doesn’t have to buy tomato plants!

There are several ways to start tomatoes. I always buy seeds and carefully plant them and they grow. And sometimes they survive when I transplant them. Last year, my son-in-law started my seeds for me with his fancy grow light operation. That worked wonderful! This year, I am trying an additional way to assure heirloom tomato starts.

I remember my friend, Jona, telling me that she simply buries her little sweet heirloom tomatoes in a pot of soil and kept them in a dark place until spring. She lives in Alabama, so they have a longer growing season there, so I am not waiting until spring! I popped one of the damaged Cherokee Purple tomatoes into a pot of herbs last fall and put it in the window. Just as promised, the tomatoes are growing. As they get bigger, I carefully take them from the pot and put them into their own. Clean tin cans with holes in the bottom are perfect for transplanting several tomatoes. As they get bigger, they will move into bigger pots, and finally will go outside into the garden about the second or third week of May.

Now is a perfect time to try it! Get a beautiful organic tomato or cherry tomatoes from the grocery store. They need to be organic! Bury it so that the top is about three inches down in a pot of organic potting soil. Place it in a south window. Water once a week or when dry. The tomato breaks down and becomes fertilizer for the plants and sends up shoots of tomatoes.

I can already taste that warm, juice tomato with sea salt and basil on it!