In the spring we planted one quarter acre of variety trials in our tomato field. These are crosses performed by our good friend Tomato Fred. He is a breeder working with heirloom varieties. I am looking for a bush tomato that we do not have to stake that has a great flavor. In a quarter acre we had about 2,500 plants. Fred came last week to walk through and select the plants he wanted. He expected to find half a dozen and came away with twelve. It is a numbers game, you just have to have a lot of plants to choose from. You walk the beds looking for productive plants. Ok it may have a lot of fruit but if they are all cracked just move on. So when we find all our basic criteria fulfilled only then do we bend down and taste the fruit. The seed will be saved, grown out, and selected again. The work continues here and in Mexico. The seed we sow next February will have been saved from the fruit picked on our farm last week.