Rest In Peace Millard Murdock

[seaeagle]

Originally Posted by seaeagle

I am sorry but I do not have the seeds or have I ever grown them. I just copied and pasted the description from the website. I will investigate further to see if I can locate this seller. Only clue is that the seller is from Wisconsin.

Maybe one of these will work


https://www.facebook.com/gemsandstems


https://www.globuya.com/US/Genoa-Cit...s-Garden-Store


http://www.findglocal.com/US/Genoa-C...s-Garden-Store






http://www.gemsandstems.info/


She goes by dogmother01 and is a member of davesgarden


https://davesgarden.com/members/dogmother01

[Americangrams]

Seaeagle, Thank you very much.

[Spartanburg123]

Thanks for posting this KarenO! It's quite a tomato legacy that he left.

[Zana]

So sorry to learn of Millard Murdock's passing. Years ago he sent me seeds for Black Mamba, Serendipity and Captain Lucky. I enjoyed growing and eating all of them. He will definitely be missed by many.

[Lindalana]

Aw, I learned about Mr Murdock when I planted Muddy Mamba and Black Magic. Black magic is my top favorite tomato.
Now I have Carolyn and Mr Murdock memorial tomato grows next year.

[nicky]

I just saw this thread. I am very sorry to hear of his passing. He was the 2nd person to ever send me seeds. He offered one variety in trade and when the envelope showed up it was full of all of his gorgeous varieties. A very kind man, who will be missed.

[Tormato]

Originally Posted by nicky

I just saw this thread. I am very sorry to hear of his passing. He was the 2nd person to ever send me seeds. He offered one variety in trade and when the envelope showed up it was full of all of his gorgeous varieties. A very kind man, who will be missed.

And now I know the mystery of how Angel Heart got to Canada.


I could never find it here in the states.

[Americangrams]

Tormato, what was the name of the tomato that you sent Millard that became known as Angel Heart? Or was it always Angel Heart? I hope my two old seeds germinate. Do you plan to grow it this year?

[nctomatoman]

Wow, just read this - was hoping I would get to meet him, since we are moving to Hendersonville, only a short distance from Flat Rock (we actually looked at a few houses there as move target candidates). Hi Americangrams - are you in western NC? I got Abraham Brown a few years ago from Mike Jones, a gardener I met at a Mother Earth News Fair. The sample shared with me was not stable/pure, with lots of options (I've got brown, purple, green flesh with yellow skin, and pink out of the seed. They are all potato leaf, all tasty, and can produce some really ugly, flat, catfaced specimens! Very solid flesh, very small seed cavities.

[Americangrams]

Originally Posted by nctomatoman

Wow, just read this - was hoping I would get to meet him, since we are moving to Hendersonville, only a short distance from Flat Rock (we actually looked at a few houses there as move target candidates). Hi Americangrams - are you in western NC? I got Abraham Brown a few years ago from Mike Jones, a gardener I met at a Mother Earth News Fair. The sample shared with me was not stable/pure, with lots of options (I've got brown, purple, green flesh with yellow skin, and pink out of the seed. They are all potato leaf, all tasty, and can produce some really ugly, flat, catfaced specimens! Very solid flesh, very small seed cavities.

Hi Craig,
I live in Mocksville. I would definitely be interested in some of Millard’s seeds, stable or not, if you have them. Millard’s passing was unexpected, I never got to meet him either, but we did talk a lot.

Teresa

[Tormato]

Originally Posted by nctomatoman

Wow, just read this - was hoping I would get to meet him, since we are moving to Hendersonville, only a short distance from Flat Rock (we actually looked at a few houses there as move target candidates). Hi Americangrams - are you in western NC? I got Abraham Brown a few years ago from Mike Jones, a gardener I met at a Mother Earth News Fair. The sample shared with me was not stable/pure, with lots of options (I've got brown, purple, green flesh with yellow skin, and pink out of the seed. They are all potato leaf, all tasty, and can produce some really ugly, flat, catfaced specimens! Very solid flesh, very small seed cavities.

Perhaps some of those should be stabilized, and then somehow named in honor of Millard.



I mean in honor, so that a really ugly, catfaced specimen likely would not be named Murdock's Monstrosity.


Briefly looking at his online postings, it appears he had a liking of tall ships. Perhaps old ships of the past could be a theme for names?

[Americangrams]

That is exactly what I had in mind Gary! Stabilize them, name in his honor, then distribute seeds to his family and others who want them.

[Tormato]

Originally Posted by Americangrams

Tormato, what was the name of the tomato that you sent Millard that became known as Angel Heart? Or was it always Angel Heart? I hope my two old seeds germinate. Do you plan to grow it this year?

The seeds I sent to Millard were labeled something like Pesimmon X unknown heart F2. After posting about this several years ago, it was noted that an F1 cross of a beefsteak with a heart should not produce heart shaped fruit. So, the current label of the original seed is Persimmon Sport.


I'll likely trial all of the various F2, F3, etc... seed selections I have, along with "Medusa", a selection made by another T'ville member. The seed is from about 2008 forward, so I have no idea about its viability.

[PNW_D]

Medusa

August 26 - plant collapsed - over 30 lbs on a single plant
September 10 ripened indoors

While these were not the greatest tasting fresh, they ripened to a lovely orange and made for both a very yummy pasta sauce and 12 small jars of tomato jam and marmalade

[Tormato]

Amazing.



Now, if only I can fully capture what was in the original sport. A pink heart up to 20 ounces having typical heart flavor, with 40-50 of them that ripened, another 25 or so immature greenies that couldn't, and a few dozen more flowers, at the time of the killing frost.


You named it well.