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The tomato that paid the mortgage

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Sage real estate editors and reporters will tell you that any story can be a real estate story. (Witness Peter Viles’ filing last week on that chunky foreclosed-upon cat.)

So it was flipping through “In Praise of Tomatoes” (2004), by Ronni Lundy, in search of a summer recipe, that I found this tale: Back in the ‘30s, West Virginia mechanic M.C. Byles cross-bred four hefty varieties to come up with plants that yielded tomatoes averaging 2.5 pounds. Selling the plants for $1 apiece, he was able to pay off his $6,000 mortgage in six years. These heirloom tomatoes, still around and available for purchase, are called Radiator Charlie’s Mortgage Lifters.

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Of course it’s unlikely anyone’s mortgage woes today will be solved by a tomato. But who can top that for an unlikely way to pay off a home loan?

-- Lauren Beale

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Photo credit: Los Angeles Times

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