Old South Seeds Etsy shop is filled with unique heirloom tomatoes and peppers.
When I received a Facebook message from Mark Barnett of Alabama, I was intrigued. His friend Karol had stumbled onto a Facebook post I had made in 2023.
I was holding a huge ‘Marryanne’s’ tomato that Ken Pisarcik had just given me at Freedom Farms.
His cousins run the farm and he was there for a visit, I think we was also delivering some of these tomatoes to friends too.
I was there with a friend, who had brought me up north to get my truck worked on and on our way back we stopped at the farm to enjoy a cold beer in their greenhouse beer garden.
Ken recognized me from TV, told me about the tomato and went to his vehicle to get me one. (continued below)
Here’s the Facebook post that Mark sent me.
The tomato was maybe a little overripe, but when I got home, I cut it open, saved some seeds and ate the rest of that tasty heirloom tomato. It’s a winner for sure, with rich, old-fashioned flavor.
Fast forward to 2026 and my conversation with Mark, he was hoping to get some seeds and more information about the tomato.
I had seeds for him, I searched online, found Ken’s number, texted him and he called me right away even though he was on vacation in Florida.
He had discovered the tomato up in Erie where he camps. His friend Maryanne Dombrowski from Buffalo also frequented the area and shared the tomato with him. She has since passed way, but told him the tomato variety was originally from Greece, even though when Ken first saw me, he thought it was from Italy, that’s actually a different variety from Maryanne.
I passed along the story to Mark, told him his seeds were on the way, then he did a little research on me and discovered my Free Doug’s Seed Shacks.
He said that he wanted to package up some seeds for me to use in the shacks, but was worried because his seed enveloped promoted the Etsy shop he runs with Karol.
They sell unique heirloom tomatoes and pepper seeds to help cover the cost of their gardening projects including outreach to help kids and other gardeners.
I didn’t mind at all, and am very thankful for the seeds he’s sending me.
While looking through the site, I was amazed at all the interesting and rare varieties being offered. Listen to some of these names- India Zebra, Snow Fairy, Big Anna, Randy’s Rockin’ Red, Mennonite Orange, Aunt Eulas Rockhouse Pink. They are offering 117 types of tomatoes and 48 peppers.
This is the fun of gardening! Meeting other like minded people and making cool varieties available for everyone to enjoy.
Here’s the listing of tomato and pepper varieties at Old South Seeds.
‘Giant Syrian’ tomato being offered by Old South Seeds. I happen to love Duke’s Mayo too!