From away to garden.com and Robinhood Radio.com, this is Away to Garden with Margaret

Roach.

You're a weekly invitation to dig in and grow.

Around this time each summer I look forward to the onslaught of fresh tomatoes.

While at the same time, hoping against hope that what I call tomato troubles don't reveal

themselves and get the upper hand. I've been hearing from lots of readers and

listeners in recent weeks that the new normal of weather chaos nationwide and

worldwide isn't helping them get to the tomato finish line successfully and

that they're worried. So with all that in mind I made my annual frantic call

with some urgent tomato questions to today's guest Craig

Lahulier and North Carolina, the NC tomato man, as he's known on social media,

author of the classic book Epic Tomatoes. Craig knows more about these

cherished fruits than almost anyone I've ever met and he even shares that in

live sessions each week on his Instagram account where you can ask your questions and get

solid answers. I asked Craig how he's doing and what we should all be doing to bolster

a bountiful harvest and also about which fruits to save next year's seed from anyhow and

other tomato questions. Hey Craig, how are you?

Hi, how are you? It's just wonderful to be here chatting with you and it's so it's so timely because today

I went out and actually harvested the first actual non-blossom end rod induced ripen perfect tomatoes for my garden

So we're late. We're about two or three weeks later than usual here. Whoa, okay

Well before we get started with our complaints and our success stories

I should say we'll

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