Bob Zeni
Chicago Tomato Man
I’m a certified master gardener who loves gardening and hates those little red water balloons at supermarkets. What started out as a quest for a tasty tomato has evolved into a year-round obsession. Every winter, I review comments from happy (and unhappy) customers to learn their experiences. I pore over seed supplier lists (see the list at bottom of this page), placing orders for favorites and unique, exotic varieties.
Wendy Zeni
Recipe Creator / Canning Expert
My ever-patient wife begins work when the tomatoes mature. She cans tomatoes to use in her innovative recipes all year long. She’s remarkably understanding. And the voice of common sense in judging my ideas, endorsing the good ones and gently asking “are you sure?” when any of my ideas is a true clunker.
Rebecca Zeni
Data Wrangler / Inventory Guru / Tech Fixer
15,000 plants, 3,000 orders, 175 varieties, 36 pop-ups at 18 locations, 8 sequential plantings? Rebecca keeps track of it all. Her guidance and direction means people who order plants get the variety and quantity they want, when and where they want them. We’d be dazed and confused without her.
Emily Rubin
Operations Manager
Smart, focused, organized, intense, charming and utterly unfazed by seemingly impossible challenges, Emily keeps the enterprise moving forward. A veteran of urban agriculture in Chicago, she knows where all the bodies roots are buried. She loves tomatoes as much as she loves carrots.
Gus (in memoriam)
Plant Protector / Squirrel Chaser
When he was not raiding the tomato patch to pull off and munch on tomatoes himself, Gus sat in the shade quietly waiting to scare off any approaching squirrels. While his body is gone, his spirit is still with us. We have faith that he’s enjoying all the tomatoes he can eat in the great garden in the sky.
Mike Roach
Marketing Director
Mike is a tomato lover and promotions wizard who helps get the word out about us. A veteran of Chicago journalism and media, he’s invaluable in spreading the good word about the flavor and glory of handpicked, homegrown, vine-ripened heirloom tomatoes.
Seed Sources
Want to grow your own heirloom tomatoes from seed? I buy from these purveyors. They offer a vast array of exotic, flavorful heirloom tomatoes. Their seeds consistently yield a high percentage of seedlings and the plants themselves are strong and healthy.