Does anyone have access to old seed catalogs or lists of tomatoes from the late 1950-early1960 era? I was a gardener in 4-H at the time, in the Midwest (Minnesota to be specific) and remember my family enjoying the tomatoes I grew. I feel like the variety name started with C but I could be wrong on that account too, knowing how the memory plays tricks on us! Just thought I would ask 'the pros' to see if anyone could help out. Thanks. Kath A.

Try requesting a seed catalog from this company:

http://www.victoryseeds.com/catalog/vegetable/tomato/tomato.html

Here's a suggestion:

Go to Ebay and search for "seed catalog."

There are listings for catalogs back to the 1800s including a 1958 Burpee catalog with a bid price of $3.99

Wayne

CELEBRITY

Celebrity is a hybrid that I think has only been around since the 80's.

Wayne

Looking through my ancient books the only "c" variety I came across was Chatham, which was grown for the climate in Washington state. In the Totally Tomatoes catalog, they have Campbells listed as an old fashioned tomato.

It might be better to order some seed catalogs or look at on-line ones and try to find a tomato that has the size, flavor etc. that you remember. It wouldn't hurt to look at some of the "favorite" tomato threads that pop up all the time here . Just use the "find" button right over this thread to do a search. Another idea would be to ask people in your area who start their own or have been gardening forever what their favorite is.

I just thought of something. Many horticultural societies have old catalogs in their library collections. You might check to see if there is a society in your state, hopefully nearby, and if you could have access to their catalogs.

Also, Dave's garden watchdog site has ratings and contacts for lots of catalogs. Perhaps you could find an old fashioned seed seller who might list your seed. Many catalogs are available online so you could search through them to see if one of the names rings a bell.