Cynthia Sandberg and Love Apple Farm

Today the Santa Cruz Sentinel* ran a big article on my new friend, Cynthia Sandberg, of Love Apple Farm in Ben Lomond (using my photo at left, which they failed to credit). I'd heard of Cynthia from two different women: the first was Karla, an online acquaintance at Readerville.com, who referred me to Cynthia's tomato seedlings and tomato plants, as well as her eggs. Karla said that Cynthia was called "The Egg Lady" or "The Tomato Lady."

The next thing I heard about Cynthia was from my friend, Lena, who is a champion dahlia grower. She knew Cynthia from the local Dahlia Society. Lena and I drove up to Ben Lomond one day a couple of years ago to check things out. Alas, we arrived too late for tomatoes, but came home with some farm fresh eggs. The beauty of the property impressed me deeply, if for no other reason than the big back porch on the green farmhouse.

Last September, other friends (Mike and Annaliese Keller) acquired for me a free pass to the Carmel Tomato Festival, one of the most desirable foodie events of the year anywhere, as near as I could tell. I'd slobbered over their website for at least a decade, always wishing I could go. I leaped at the chance, and arrived early with my camera to photograph as an official representative of a food group I had joined earlier in the year.

I had met Gary Ibsen, who runs Tomato Fest, just a month earlier, when he attended a party up at Meder Street Farm. He handed out cases of heirloom tomatoes, and I was Lady Bounty for the next few days, sharing this unbelievable wealth with my family and friends. He struck me as a beautiful and gentle man: shaking hands with him felt like dancing. But I digress. (Not actually, as I hope to visit Gary and his more than 500 kinds of heirloom tomatoes later this summer.)

It was a spectacular event, and I had to leave early, unfortunately, as I was also scheduled to photograph a farm dinner up in Brentwood later that day. But someone introduced me to a beautiful woman who turned out to be Cynthia Geske. We had the briefest of chats, and parted after I photographed a few of the tomatoes she had entered into the 300+ tomato tasting. I came home and wrote up the event, which I posted on my web site. (NOTE: tomato porn awaits those who click.)

Earlier in the month, when I started this blog, I thought about Cynthia (on the left, green shirt) and decided to pay her a visit. I wound up visiting two days in a row, once without Logan and the next day, with him. Turns out that Cynthia is exactly five days younger than I am, and it also turns out that she's one of those people I feel like you've known for a long time. She's funny as hell, gorgeous in her braids and straw hat, and has the ability to multitask like few people I've ever seen. I casually inquired how many tomatoes on her current list (three long pages) she had actually tasted, and she surprised me by starting to count. In the midst of her counting, she fielded questions over her shoulder to her assistant who was helping a customer. She never lost a beat once: she's just streaming energy.

The reporter from the Sentinel had just left, and Cynthia told me that she was now partnered with Gary Ibsen, growing tomatoes for Gary's Tomato Fest label. (Can I get a "woo hoo" from the choir?) She worked while we talked and I photographed: she was transplanting seedlings that had staggered her with their development. Whatever the potting soil she'd found was, it had doubled the growth of the seedlings (thousands of them) so that she had to pinch them back to nubbins.

Being around Cynthia is like being around a talking (alto) encyclopedia that cracks jokes. She knows so incredibly much about tomatoes, having overcome her own non-green thumb by taking some horticulture classes at Cabrillo College. Tomatoes were what flipped her skirt, and tomatoes became her passion. Her original tomato garden contained ten kinds of heirlooms; she now grows 120 varieties. Part of the nutrition (all organic, of course) comes from worm castings, aka "worm poo" to the layman, which Cynthia had learned about from Mike Keller, aka "Worm Boy" to his legions of friends. (You'll surely see Mike's name in this journal again.)

I returned the next afternoon with Logan, whom Cynthia allowed into the pen with her nearly six-dozen chickens. (Click into the photo album entitled "Small Farms" and you'll see Logan with a chicken -- what a happy boy!)

A roadside sign announces plants and eggs for sale; it will alert passersby when tomatoes themselves are for sale ($2/pound). Along with dispensing these items, Cynthia is a fountain bubbling with knowledge, which she freely pours to any curious soul. She's a kind of free-flowing efficiency machine, and I am in awe of what she gets done. She's no-nonsense but she's a goofball. "Food is the most fun I have!" she laughed. A good thing: I persuaded her to go to Manresa for the chef's tasting. She might turn cartwheels. (I intend to find out.)

EDIT: 2006...her dinner turned into a relationship: she started selling tomatoes to David Kinch, and then, a few months later, he asked her to develop what would become the "kitchen garden" for Manresa. Biodynamic, no less. I swear, I should get finders' fees for all the matchmaking I do.

So, Egg Lady or Tomato Lady? I think the tomato is her destiny and calling.

*The Sentinel's is not to credit photographers unless they magically guess the policy and request a credit, so I was stiffed on the photo credit.

© 2005 Tana Anderson Butler, all rights reserved, period.

Comments

[Tana]

Another article in the Sentinel on Love Apple Farm: "Love Apple Farm offers rare tomatoes."

[Tana]

Cynthia Geske is going to do another Tomato Talk on Saturday, May 7, from noon until 2:30 PM or so. The last one had about a hundred attendees, and we stood and sat in the rain (except for a few under the awning) to hear her. And did we come home with nine tomato plants? Yes, because we are greedy.

[Brian Bickford]

I am a fairly new tomato grower and I would like to get in touch with Love Apple farms so that I can order some seeds, but I am having a hard time finding their website. If you could help me with that info I would really appreciate it.

Thanks!

[Bev Nordquist]

I am looking for a tomatoe seed called "June Pink", a low acid, pink, very flavorful slicer grown from the 20's. Anyone?? Thanksk!! BJN