EAST WILTON – Amy LeBlanc is passionate about tomatoes.
This is the impression I got on a spring day as we sat in her greenhouse at Whitehill Farm. While we talked she was planting tomato seeds for her seedling business. As we discussed her history of farming and her work with Seed Saver’s Exchange she would pull out a packet of tomato seeds and tell me all about the variety.
She’s fond of oxhearts; sort of a large paste tomato with a heart shaped crown. The oxheart variety is not too juicy and solid meat all the way through. Great for putting by or as LeBlanc said, “Oxhearts are the best tomato for a BLT.”
LeBlanc and her husband Mike, moved to their home in Wilton in 1985. She had always grown a big garden and was moved to start farming when she found a Hog Heart tomato at New Moon Rising, a health food store in Waterville, in 1986.
That tomato was grown by the “tomato lady” who turned her onto Seed Saver’s exchange.
From there LeBlanc started experimenting with different varieties. Now she grows and saves the seeds of about 25 tomatoes and 10 hot peppers.
In 1991, she created her first Tomato Lovers Paradise catalog. The following year she was certified organic. She is also an organic certification inspector for Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association. She performs 25-30 inspections a year for other farmers.
LeBlanc takes pride in the fact that she has inspired three other folks to get into farming. All three worked for her on her farm. She farms on less that 4,000 square feet in 100 raised beds. She practices low till farming and cover cropping because, “you gotta grow good soil if you want to grow good food.”
An avid seed saver, she is challenging herself to save the seeds of biennials; plants that produce seeds the second year of growth. Among the plants she is trying are leeks and cucurbits or squashes.
Currently she sells her seedlings through her online catalog. She is a farmer at the Sandy River Farmers’ Market on Fridays from May to October and at the Winter Market on Saturdays November through April. She also has a spring sale at her farm. She is currently taking orders for spring seedlings on a first come first serve basis.
Whitehill Farm is located at 357 McCrillis Corner Road. Call (207) 778-2685 for more information.
In an occasional series, Karin Schott of New Sharon, interviews the farmers of Franklin County to find out how they got started and the latest trends in agriculture. Schott is a student at Umass Amherst in their Small Farming and Sustainability Certificate Program.
For ten years, I have relied on Amy’s seedlings for a continuous summer bounty of tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants. I don’t have a green thumb but her strong healthy seedlings make me look like a master gardener. Her week-long plant sale is a full-blow event that I look forward to each year.
And that picture for the article, sure captures your essence Amy. So cute!!!
This article is great as it highlights one of the areas most dedicated and hardworking women I’ve ever had the pleasure to know. It does leave out the fact that she has over the years helped dozens of teenagers have their first “real” job, and I think this is where Amy is quite unique. Not every person can handle the teenage years, and it takes a special type of person to teach and encourage teenagers especially with a job such as organic gardening that can be quite tedious and require much patience. It is one thing to have a boss say, “No, you’ve done this wrong,” it is another to have a boss who would say “No, you’ve done this wrong, and here’s why that way isn’t as effective, and here is why it is best to do it this way.” And lastly, heaven forbid to have a boss who will admit that on occasion a teenager might have come up with a great solution to a problem! ;)
In addition, she has surely inspired more than three individuals to grow a garden – I know without her guidance and wisdom about vegetable related issues, and solutions there would be many times when our personal garden would have taken a great beating if not for her intuitive insights.
Many times new, first time gardeners would arrive to her farm nervous and not sure how to have a garden, and by the time they were driving away, they were typically beaming with excitement to get home and begin.
Amy brings everything she has got when she gardens and her passion is evident when one considers all the time it takes to build one garden, let alone building the starter gardens for the dozens and dozens of people she does each year. A wonderful lady doing wonderful things!
Well, Amy may have influenced a few people to be farmers but probably has assisted and inspired at least a hundreds more to tackle gardening for the first time and learn new tricks along the way. She has generously shared tips, wisdom and problem-solving strategies on as as needed basis.
My summers have changed a lot over the years beginning when I first tried a few different tomatoes from her catalog. And when I read the comment above and figured out that it’s my daughter who used to work for Amy – that says it all! She learned a lot from Amy, so I got the benefit of that. Amy’s taught all kinds of people young and old to grow their own foo. This article was far too light on her accomplishments.Thank you, Amy!
Congratulations Amy! It’s great to see your smiling face.