The second batch worked noticeably better. The seed separated more easily from the surrounding pulp, dried to a workable condition, and produced a more even group of seedlings in a small test. Mary Ann counted what emerged in each marked tray, then counted again after the first leaves formed. In some comparisons germination nearly doubled over her worst untreated sample, although she understood that handling and seed condition varied among batches. The useful conclusion was not that she had discovered a magic treatment; it was that controlled preparation gave her fewer surprises.
She showed Lena her notes when the agent visited in April. Lena studied the numbers, checked the dates, and asked whether Mary Ann had tested equal quantities from the same lot. When Mary Ann admitted that some of the comparisons came from different truck deliveries, Lena marked the page gently with a pencil. "The difference is interesting," she said, "but we can't give all the credit to one step unless the other conditions are comparable."
Mary Ann sighed. "I was beginning to feel clever."
"You can feel clever and still run a better test. That's practically the definition of learning."
By May, seedlings from selected first-season plants stood in separate trays, each labeled with the year, parent number, and date sown. She also planted a small collection from the newly processed cannery waste to keep exploring the material without confusing it with her selected lines. Most of that fresh seed produced ordinary processing types, and some failed altogether. Yet the selected seed groups held enough interesting variation to keep her taking notes.
The seedlings from Yellow Stripe were especially puzzling. A few showed the familiar pale shoulders she remembered from the original parent, while others grew green fruit that eventually turned red without a trace of yellow. Dark Shoulder produced plants with different leaf shapes and wildly different fruit sizes. Little Paste repeated its compact habit in some descendants but became a tall, sprawling vine in others. There was no way to pretend she had already created four finished varieties.
Hollis came by with a folding camp chair because his back no longer liked standing in fields for more than twenty minutes. Mary Ann set the chair at the end of a row and walked him through the plants she was watching. He listened, occasionally asking her to point to a particular stem or explain what she meant by a note. When she finished, he reached into his pocket and handed her a piece of paper covered in his blocky handwriting.
"What's that?" she asked.
"A list of the reasons grocery buyers reject tomatoes. Things I heard for forty years. Figured you might as well know the arguments before anybody makes them."
There were notes about bruising, inconsistent sizing, poor shelf life, insufficient supply, damaged skin, and deliveries arriving at the wrong stage of ripeness. Beside one item he had written, in capital letters, TASTE SELLS ONCE. RELIABILITY BRINGS THEM BACK. Mary Ann read the list twice.
"You think I'm going to be selling to grocery stores?"
"I think people like the flavor. I also think a tomato doesn't stop having to travel just because you love it."
She folded the paper into her notebook. "I don't have a truck route, Hollis. I barely have a garden."
"That's what makes now a good time to learn."