Connect with the garden and neighbors by growing tomatoes
Remember last summer’s crop of homegrown tomatoes? You wander outside, the morning is already heating up, and you see your tomato plant—bright green fuzzy leaves with full red globes. You twist off a deep red Cherry 100 because you can’t wait, as you imagine sweetness, acidity, and savory notes bursting in your mouth. Can you smell the fresh green scent of the leaf on your fingertips?
HOME GARDENER Dean Schneider with a plant haul.
Well, it’s that time of year again. Time to plant your seeds and nurture your seedlings! Here are some March events coming up to get you started.
MORNING DELIGHT, the sweet Cherry 100s.
Look out for Alex Gasperik, better known as “the Tomato Kid of Brookside,” who will be showing up at the Larchmont Farmers’ Market come March. “My tomatoes are already in their little pots. It looks like I’ll have 200 to 300 plants for sale, all heirloom varieties,” said Gasperik.
One might choose his Carmello variety (great for sauces), or the Cherokee Purple, said to be rich and sweet, or a Green Grape variety—”tangy and great for snacking,” he said. All of Gasperik’s tomatoes are organic. “I use the compost pile in my family’s backyard to grow them,” he explains.
Gasperik, not a kid at all anymore at 25, is also taking orders from his Tomato 2026 menu through email. He said, “I deliver the plants to neighbors by car—no longer by milk crate attached to my bicycle, like when I was 10”—the age he started his business.
When not cultivating tomatoes, Gasperik teaches Lego robotics and Minecraft coding to children in after school programs.
For more Gasperik’s tomato menu or more information contact him at tomatokid@att.net.
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Tomatomania, a tomato lovers event started in the 1990s by Scott Daigre, will be holding a two-day sale at Anawalt Lumber Hollywood, 1001 North Highland Ave., Fri., March 28, and Sat., March 29, where you can pick from 75 varieties of tomatoes. Employee Fidel Flores said, “You will learn how to get seeds to germinate and care for seedlings as well as how much sun the plants need and how and when to use fertilizer.”
TOMATO SEEDLINGS from Alex Gasperik’s heirloom varieties from his 2026 menu.
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One local fan of Tomatomania events is Dean Schneider, who said, “Definitely go if you have the opportunity. It’s so pure and joyous seeing people in this hyper-specific community have so much fun and speak what is really another language about tomatoes—not fine pens or something. I’m like an evangelist now! I didn’t even like tomatoes growing up, and now I love them!”
Schneider said he won’t buy tomatoes from a store anymore. “The ones I grow have such distinct, unique flavors and less acidity,” he said. Some of his favorites are Brad’s Atomic, which not only taste great, but are popular to photograph, “because the colors swirl like a galaxy with hues of brown, yellow, and deep purple.” He loves the size and flavor of Jaune Flamme too, but maybe his favorite is the Spoon tomato. Of the small, pea-sized varietal he said, “They are closer to the ancient tomato size, and being an indeterminate species (a highly productive tomato that keeps bearing new fruit) they work as a ‘party plant’ of sorts. People tend to chat in the garden and serve themselves.”
Category: Real Estate
