Hartmut’s tomatoes are now also available on YouTube

By Björn Trautwein

This souvenir not only tastes good, it also makes you smart!

While most people receive a text message or a postcard from vacation, Hartmut Buchwald (80) received tomatoes. 30 pieces. But not in a basket, but as seeds in an envelope. “A friend gave it to me after his vacation in France,” says the pensioner enthusiastically, “he had collected 30 different varieties at weekly markets.” The request: “You have a greenhouse, look what comes of it!”

That was 14 years ago and the funny holiday souvenir has become one of the most exciting school events in Berlin. The “Tomato Parade” with beds and plants in over 100 schools. The project has recently even been available on the Internet: Hartmut’s Tomatoes have their own YouTube channel. There, schools (and anyone interested) can learn how to grow vegetables at home or in the garden.

“When I saw the first tomatoes back then, I was surprised at how diverse they were,” he says. “They came in all shapes and colors and tasted different too.” His plants are red, purple and striped and are called “Early Wonder”, “Tiger” or “Golden Nugget”.

And so that not only his neighbors benefited, the pensioner from Spandau began working with schools, planting beds and telling interesting facts about the vegetables. In 2011, he began working with the Berlin Community Foundation to create gardens at eight schools – since then, over 100 have taken part.

German, math, tomato garden! The children learn where food comes from, how diverse nature is and how plants grow.

Hartmut Buchwald no longer plants on site, but instead sends seeds that he obtains from the plants in his garden. And so that even more children (and adults) can learn everything about tomatoes, the community foundation has started the “Tomato Tube”. Short clips in which Buchwald presents his project and tells interesting facts about the vegetable.