Los Gatos Weekly-Times

Photograph by R.W. Bradford

At the Los Gatos Farmers' Market, Mary Cake sells handfuls of heritage tomato varieties grown in her 'country garden' near Modesto.

Heirloom tomatoes grow in LG Farmers' Market

By Suzanne Cristallo

In 1990, the Berlin Wall came down. East met West in Germany after 29 years of separation. Starved for the innovation and the abundance they saw in the West, entrepreneurial East Germans began throwing out what they viewed as underproductive. Victims of this changeover--as more and more Eastern European countries abandoned Communism--are many varieties of tomatoes.

Lacking the robust red color and productiveness of American "capitalist tomatoes" and possessing somewhat finicky growing habits, the tomatoes would have become extinct had it not been for Seed Savers, an Iowa organization dedicated to the preservation of vegetables and flowers that are no longer grown commercially.

These abandoned varieties of tomatoes, along with other vegetables, can be found in a startling array every Sunday at the Los Gatos Farmers' Market, where grower Mary Cake offers a medley of vegetables from all over the world.

Seed Savers sent her the seeds for up to 20 kinds of tomatoes, which she and husband Terry have nurtured into a thriving farmers' market business they call "A Country Garden."

A part of the Los Gatos Farmers' Market since mid-June, Cake brings her produce to the Town Plaza each Sunday. But regular shoppers will still find some surprises over the summer, as she features a different tomato each week.

There are black tomatoes and orange and white zebras. Some are lumpy, some oblong. Some come from Russia, Bulgaria, Romania, Poland and Ukraine, while others hail from Australia, France and our own pre-Civil War gardens. Grown organically on land held by Cake's family since 1909, 100 kinds of tomatoes--both heirloom and hybrids--flourish in the summer. In winter, carrots, beets, turnips, salad mix and greens take over.

"We're specialty growers," says Cake, 54, who after her 1989 marriage returned with husband Terry to her family homestead in Hughson, 10 miles southeast of Modesto.

There they began the restoration of the 1890s Victorian where her mother was born; they also converted several acres of almond and peach orchard to organic cultivation. It was a radical change. Canadian Terry had run an animated and documentary film agency, and Mary was an Arizona interior designer.

"We started out wanting to grow herbs," Cake recalls of some land beyond the established orchards, "but grew vegetables as an interim crop while the herbs developed."

The six acres of land they farm--part of the 100 acres Cake's mother cultivates--are dedicated to organic growing. In order to compete in a world of giant valley farms, the Cakes have chosen to carefully grow unusual kinds of crops, which they hand-pick and inspect for perfection, then offer at six farmers' markets within comfortable driving distance of their farm.

In winter, they will be offering a new Swiss chard with stems of pink, gold, yellow, red, white and apricot. The color does not affect the taste but gives shoppers the option of buying the leafy greens for decorative purposes. There also will be golden turnips and a round hybrid carrot measuring two inches across called Thumbelina.

"I love my colorful garden," Mary says, suggesting that her touch in the garden and sense of color are exterior applications of what she used to practice in the home.

A Country Garden, Los Gatos Farmers' Market, Town Plaza. Open every Sunday, 8 a.m. to noon. The Cakes can be reached at 209/883-0088.

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