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Unearthing Heirloom Tomato Seeds

With interests spanning history, paleontology, archeology, and geology, Chase Pipes, owner of the Smoky Mountain Relic Room in Sevierville, Tennessee, shares unique discoveries on his YouTube show, Chasing History. In a September segment, Chase Pipes and his crew joined two privy excavators to unearth heirloom tomato seedlings that could be used today.

The crew set up in Knoxville, Tennessee, in one of the city’s oldest neighborhoods to search land where an outhouse once stood. The crew surveyed with a probe to find where the holes once were located in search for discarded items discarded.

Upon digging, they found that a family of four lived in the nearby home by uncovering some of the products and toys the parents and children used. Apparently, the family also ate copious amounts of heirloom tomatoes, because the crew found 130-year-old seeds in the dirt that would have been mixed with the waste. These seeds could be replanted today.

The crew from Chasing History is organizing a team of researchers to collect and document seeds from other outhouse sites in the Knoxville and East Tennessee neighborhoods. This research might uncover information regarding lost, forgotten, or extinct heirloom vegetables that were common in these areas. Any interested researchers are encouraged to reach out to the Chasing History team at relics@smkw.com.