From The Hammock

Heirloom Traditions By ROBIN LOCKWOOD

The legend of the Old 84s began in a small envelope with a return address from North Carolina, sent to my grandfather, Ernest Walker. In the envelope was another, a tiny brown envelope with the number 84 printed on it. Within were a handful of tiny tomato seeds.

My grandfather, Ernest Walker, was an organic gardener before there was such a title. He and my grandmother, Lurie Walker, moved to Nashville in the West Meade area to the third new house on a new street named Fleetwood. Utilizing his wheel hoe, he broke ground that he described as the “rockiest piece of ground he had ever experienced.” Surrounding the garden were the flower beds my grandmother lovingly tended.

Granddaddy built two cold frames from scrap lumber and old windows. Using paper cups filled with dirt from the garden--packaged potting soil didn’t exist then--he carefully placed one seed on top of the soil, and using his index finger, buried it in the soil up to his second knuckle. He watered those cups and set them into the cold frames to grow.

“Tomatoes have to be planted deep to be strong,” he told me when I helped him plant. He could no longer see them by then.

From the first, he produced tomatoes like none other had ever been seen before, huge, meaty and rich in flavor. One slice made the perfect tomato sandwich. The largest one he ever grew was 2.25 lbs.

  Recently Old 84 seeds traveled to Australia with my sister, to be grown by a 95-year old gardener who tends to them with the dignity and honor they deserve.  Granddaddy would be proud to know that the Old 84s are now growing there and his two granddaughters continue the Old 84 tradition.

Robin Lockwood lives in the southwest section of Williamson County and is a founding member of the Leiper’s Fork Garden Club. She is well known as an herbalist, a gardener and for her column “Robin’s Remedies.”