Black Grape tomates and Mrs. Miriam Ley

In garden competition world, those who compete have their specialty. Whether its extra long gourds, bitter melons, colorful zinnas or black grape tomatoes!!

There are so many more varieties of tomatoes beyond plum, cherry and beef red tomatoes. There are black tomatoes, yellow tomatoes, green strip tomatoes- I had no idea. Until I befriended Ms. Miriam Ley. Mrs. Ley is an energtic NYCHA gardener famous city-wide for her black grape tomatoes. In the middle of the projects she is the main gardener at Love Community; Recylce Gardens! She grows everything from eggplant to yellow squash but what I find most amazing is her Black grape tomatoes.

The first time Mrs. Ley offered me some, I am not going to lie I was a bit skeptical,  Black Cherry Tomatoes? But I was at the Green Thumb festival in Brooklyn and with all the excitement (she had just won best vegetable basket) I decided I would ... take a picture with her. To my surprise the following year I met Mrs. Ley at Bronx Green-up harvest festival competing again with her Black Grape tomatoes. This time I remembered her and tried some of her tomatoes.