Petaluma Profile: Petaluma’s ‘Tomato Woman’ ready for big heirloom sale

Susie Dranit calls herself an amateur tomato grower, but since she raises over 1,300 organic tomato plants every year as a fundraiser for Mentor Me - nothing amateur about that - many Petalumans proudly call Dranit “The Tomato Woman.”

The large-scale volunteer project became possible when Dranit earned the opportunity to propagate her seedlings inside the commercial greenhouse at La Tercera Elementary school.

“Before then,” she says, “I grew plants in my backyard greenhouse and sold about a dozen plants a week from the coffee stand on 4th and D.” Dranit laughs when she explains, “My cash box was a Mason jar, and we would collect about $100 during the season.”

Using organic seeds from the Petaluma Seed Bank (aka Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds), which are grown in HydroFarm’s organic soil, Dranit will offer 18 different varieties of heirloom tomato plants at this year’s fundraising event, to be held Saturday, April 21, at Cavanaugh Center.

“Each variety has a unique combination of taste, color, size and growing rate,” she says. “I experiment with plants at home, and then select the varieties to sell based on customer feedback and my own experience. My personal favorites from this year are the beefsteak varieties Purple Cherokee and Black Krim, and the flavorful Sungold Orange “cherry” tomato ... because it produces fruit like crazy.”

Although she was born in San Francisco and grew up in Pacifica, Dranit’s Petaluma roots go back a couple generations.

“My grandmother, who lived to be 102, was an avid gardener, and I vividly remember spending time helping out in her Petaluma vegetable and flower gardens,” says Dranit. “Which helps explain why, when my husband and I moved to a small house on D Street almost 30 years ago, one of the first things we did was re-landscape the backyard and put in a small greenhouse.”

Dranit and her family moved to their present, larger house in 2004, and once again the backyard was transformed into a garden. As you enter from the driveway, you need to step over the low wooden fence that keeps the free-range desert tortoise inside the yard. Walking along meandering paths, you discover the outdoor sculptures, water features, and a small, climate-controlled greenhouse which define the various ornamental, vegetable and flower gardens.

Raising tomato plants, just like any commercial crop, has a great number of variables.

“The first year I used the large greenhouse, several varieties grew too big too fast for the sale date, so I used the tried-and-true Mason jar system, and sold those plants on my front porch,” she explains. “One man who bought a Violet Jasper told me that my advice on how to pinch off the lower branches before planting the leggy stem under garden soil worked beautifully. So now, I have a hand-out about that technique, for customers who buy the taller plants.”

Susie also summarizes growth and care information for the different varieties.

“Some fruits mature earlier, some need to be staked or grown in a tomato cage, some need more or less watering or soil amendments,” Dranit points out. “Customers tell me they appreciate the summaries I write up from the seed packets.

Dranit says she is looking forward to this year’s sale, and wants to make clear that she couldn’t carry out a project of this scope without the help and guidance from many volunteers and helpers, including the Mentor Me staff - as well as the support of La Tracera School, Hydrofarm, Baker Creek, Hillside Landscape and Design, Landscapes Unlimited and The Drawing Board.

“This is an incredible community,” she says. “There is nothing else like it, and I feel fortunate to be able to live here.”

(Contact Gil Mansergh at gilmansergh@comcast,net)