Gary and Dagma are World Tomato Society Co-Founders, as well as vital sources of tomato expertise and celebration. Gary “TomatoMan” Ibsen is known as a pioneer of heirloom tomato varieties. He and wife, Dagma Lacey, founded the TomatoFest online store—one of the first companies to grow, harvest, and distribute only certified-organic tomato seeds. Today, the TomatoFest store sells more than 650 tomato varieties. Ibsen was also the founder of the annual event “Gary Ibsen’s Carmel TomatoFest (California, USA) which showcased a tomato tasting of 350 tomato varieties, and tomato dishes created by some of the nation’s most favored chefs from 1995 to 2008. He and Dagma have grown and preserved seeds for 800 tomato varieties in the TomatoFest Seed Bank. Ibsen also authored The Great Tomato Book, a quintessential volume on the life and times of the world’s most popular fruit.
