New tomato plant has roots in Berne area

A popular tomato plant being offered this year by the Baker Creek Seed Company of Seymour, Missouri is described in the company catalog as a “pink, beefsteak-type tomato that is an excellent slicing tomato.” The tomato, known as the Dester tomato, was brought to this country many years ago by the ancestors of Dr. Herbert Dester, who was a family physician in this community in the early 1960s. Dester, who had been a devout Christian missionary for the Mennonite Church in India for a large portion of his life, was also an avid gardener.