Mindy Joy Schwartz is growing 95 varieties of tomatoes this spring at her urban farm and nursery in Wilkinsburg.Lenore Schwartz is sitting at a picnic table under a towering Norway maple tree, smoothing printed labels onto plastic plant sticks: Sungold, Chianti Rose, Mortgage Lifter, Indian Moon, Red Calabash, Green Zebra.

“How many varieties is it this year, honey? 86?”

“95 this year,” her daughter answers. “Next year it’s the Pittsburgh 100.”

Mindy Joy Schwartz believes she has discovered one of the keys to urban renewal, and it’s not government money, massive demolition or tax incentives for developers.

It’s small and red, unless it’s pink, purple, orange, yellow, white or green.

“The heirloom tomato is the draw that pulls them,” Ms. Schwartz said. “It’s the bait on the end of my hook.”

What she wants to hook people on is living sustainably on their own patch of Earth. It starts with growing their own food, which she already is doing using organic methods at Garden Dreams, her urban farm and nursery in Wilkinsburg.

Read the full article here http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08138/882540-47.stm

Saturday, May 17, 2008
By Patricia Lowry, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette