You say tomato, I say Mortgage Lifter?

Spring is upon us and I’ve spent a lot of time flipping through gardening books, perusing the local nurseries, and trying to decide what to plant. Every time I thought I had made a selection, ok so I’ll plant the tomatoes here, another question would inevitably crop up. (Who knew there were that many different tomato varieties out there?)

Looking through seed catalogs I was actually struck by some really interesting tomato names. One of the tomatoes I came across, the Mortgage Lifter, turned out to have a great back story. Apparently, sometime in the early 20th century, a West Virginia auto repairman known as Radiator Charlie created an extremely popular tomato. In just four years, Charlie paid off his $6000 mortgage by selling his tomato seedlings for $1 each. How ‘bout them love apples?
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