Hope and Practice: Niki Stevens

‘Tomatoes are actually good!’

Niki Stevens, Exchange lister, recounts why she grows, saves, and shares two very special tomato varieties. 

My path to seed saving started around the age of four. I knew that those red things (tomatoes) my mom had picked were bad news. Didn’t she know they were poisonous to people? I knew. I also knew that we had a pig named Wilbur and that Wilbur was willing to eat anything. The problem was he lived far from the house and getting the tomatoes to him by myself was going to be an issue. Thankfully, I was able to convince my younger sister, Katrina, that we needed to get rid of the tomatoes. With many breaks, we transported them halfway to Wilbur before we were caught literally red-handed. My punishment was brutal: I was made to eat one of those red things. At that moment, I had an epiphany—tomatoes are actually good!

Many years later, I was married and was growing my own gardens, which always at this point included tomatoes. One year, about 1999, my husband’s grandmother, Lydia, wasn’t feeling very well so she gave me the seven tomato plants she had growing in little cups on her windowsill to tend. I asked her what kind they were, and she replied, “George Washingtons.” 

I looked everywhere for information about the ‘George Washington,’ hoping to learn more about this potato-leaf tomato variety. It grew tall and produced the biggest, tastiest, dark-pink beefsteak tomatoes I had ever seen. And the tomatoes had very few seeds. In short, it was the ultimate tomato! I was hooked, but nowhere could I find a tomato named ‘George Washington.’ For a few years, I thought perhaps Lydia meant it was the ‘Abraham Lincoln’ tomato, but after growing that one out, I realized it was definitely not my tomato. Mine was better!

I also received one lonely little paste tomato from my husband’s grandmother and have grown it every year since as well. It is my go-to canning tomato. I don’t know what its name was so I just call it the ‘Lydia Stevens’ paste tomato. After asking around, I learned this tomato had been stewarded by my husband’s side of the family for probably at least 70 years before I began growing it in my garden 25 years ago.

I am grateful Lydia Stevens gave me these tomato seeds. I hope that one of my kids will someday take over growing these varieties, but there’s no guarantee of that. And that’s why offering them on the Exchange is very important to me—I want to be sure that these tomatoes aren’t lost when I can no longer grow them, and if other Exchange participants are also growing them in their gardens, then they won’t be.

Niki Stevens of Amberson, Pennsylvania, is offering five varieties through the Exchange in 2025, including the ‘George Washington’ and ‘Lydia Stevens’ tomatoes.