ALBERT LEA, MINN. - Every year in March, St. John's Lutheran Home resident Larry Kimpell gets a little antsy.

Deemed the Tomato King by his fellow residents and staff, Kimpell, 80, starts looking through his seed catalogs, planning what kinds and how many tomato seeds he will purchase, plant and nurture for the year.

In mid-April he plants the seeds, keeping them under special lights, misting them with water and putting them next to a fan to build the strength of the stems.

Then in May, the seedlings are planted after the danger of frost is gone.

"It gives me something to do," Kimpell said. "It keeps me busy. It's a good feeling to get stuff for people to eat, and it's fun looking at it, too."

While he lets some tomatoes stay on the vines until they are red, he picks a good number of them while they're still green.

Then he stacks them in cardboard boxes, layers them with newspapers and waits until they turn red. The result: a juicy red tomato without blemishes that looks as high-quality as something you'd find in grocery stores.

This year, Kimpell, who has lived at St. John's more than six years, planted more than 100 tomato plants -- including varieties of super big boy, big boy, girly girl, beef steak, Roma and cherry tomatoes.

The tomatoes he has grown have so far produced 6 1/2 buckets (2 1/2 gallon size) of spaghetti sauce to feed the residents, enough tomatoes for the entire second-floor residents to have BLTs, tomatoes for salsa, tomatoes for salads and, of course, some tomatoes just to eat, too.

Where did his love of tomatoes begin?

Kimpell said that growing up he learned to garden and to cook.

He'd have fresh tomatoes through Christmas, he said.

Kimpell said residents this year also grew flowers, peppers, eggplants, cucumbers, potatoes and sweet corn.

Nancy Sather, St. John's garden program director, said residents in each neighborhood -- or wing -- of the nursing home begin the program each spring when they plan what produce they want to grow.

The program, which started in 2005, gives the residents something to take pride in, Sather said. Even the Sheltering Arms unit -- the Alzheimer's unit -- has plants.

"The whole gardening program is not just about the actual gardening," she said. "They can also prepare food."

For example, residents cut up the tomatoes and other produce to get them ready for the sauce or salsa.

"It gives families something to talk about," said Diane Wichmann, activities director. "It's good for everybody."

"And it helps them feel useful," Sather added.

Both women acknowledged Kimpell as a leader of the gardening program.

"He keeps us informed if something's not right in the garden," Wichmann said.

She said that she has sometimes arrived for work at 6:30 a.m. to find Kimpell out checking on things.

He often waters all of the plants, and he's even weeded plants from his wheelchair using a grabber tool.

Kimpell noted that tomatoes are one of his favorite foods.

"I have them about every night," he said.