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2008 Tomato Varieties

We do not ship plants or sell seeds at this time, neither can we return long distance calls regarding our plants.  (We get a lot of calls, and those charges add up...)  These plants are available at the nursery, or at venues where we sell. 

All of our tomato plants are gone.  Thank you for a terrific 2008!  I hope you have great success in your garden this year.  We do still have a good assortment of hot peppers.  It is getting late to put them in the garden, but you could plant them in pots- they make nice potted plants, and would bear fruit this year if you managed them right. 

A Grappoli Corbarino *New* 75 days                                                                                                                                                       Grape, very large Pomodorini type, bright red, long, oval, very sweet, thin skin, fresh or canned

Amish Paste Heirloom Tomato  85 days  SOLD OUT
Very productive, flavorful and reliable.  Bigger and better than Roma.  Makes the ultimate sauce. Flavor is complex and slightly tart.  

Aunt Ruby’s German Green Heirloom Tomato  85 days
Yes, they’re green, but they have a wonderful flavor you won’t believe!!  Fruits up to a pound have an amber pink tinge on the blossom end when ripe.  Sweet, tart, rich and spicy. From Ruby
Arnold of Greenville, TN.

Black Krim Heirloom Tomato 80 days 
Iridescent purple with dark green-black shoulders.  Very productive.  Grows to 1 ½ pounds.  Juicy yet meaty texture, rich smoky flavor.  Indeterminate.

Box Car Willie Heirloom Tomato  80 days
Expect a very heavy crop of good-sized, smooth, delicious, red tomatoes from this heirloom.  Fruits range from 6 to 10 oz, and are borne over a long season. A good choice for your “main” tomato crop.

Brandywine Heirloom Tomato Sudduth's Strain *NEW* 85 days  SOLD OUT
The pink beefsteak that inspired the heirloom tomato revival.  The perfect blend of sweet, tart, and rich tomato flavor.  Meaty, 1 ½ pound fruits. Honestly, this has never been a personal favorite, but I am trying a new strain this year in hopes of achieving better yields and more disease resistance out of this customer favorite.   When I say new strain, I mean new to me, as this one is one of the oldest, possibly the original Pink Brandywine strain. 

Bull’s Heart Heirloom Tomato 87 days  SOLD OUT
This is a very old Russian variety bearing large, pink oxheart-type tomatoes with excellent, sweet flavor.  Strong plants produce abundantly, with some fruit growing to 2 lbs. and more.  Many people around here are really fond of ox-heart tomatoes;  they do tend to have an especially rich flavor,

Cherokee Purple Heirloom Tomato 77 days  SOLD OUT
A Tennessee treasure.  A top 10 heirloom.  Flavor is outstanding; rich, smoky, and wine-like.  10-13 oz fruits are dusky brownish-purple with dark green shoulders and brick red flesh.  Indeterminate, but with short vines.

Fargo Yellow Pear Heirloom Tomato  82 days  SOLD OUT
Great tomato taste in a pear shaped tomato?  That’s Fargo! Produces lots of tasty one ounce fruits (about 2x the size of other pear types.) 

German Giant Heirloom Tomato  77 days  SOLD OUT
This family heirloom produces an abundance of deep pink tomatoes that are just huge and brimming with luscious flavor.  Potato leaved.  Smooth in shape, 2 lbs. or more, and full of that rich but sweet taste that make a tomato scrumptious.

German Johnson Heirloom Tomato 80 days 
An old heirloom probably from Virginia or North Carolina. Mild, sweet, pink tomato that is one of the parents of the famous Mortgage Lifter. Meaty fruits often exceed 1 pound.  A favorite of many of my local customers.   

German Queen Heirloom Tomato *NEW* 80 days 
Luscious, sweet pink beefsteak fruit have an incredible flavor and are large and meaty.  Perfect for slicing.  Tomatoes average 1 lb. and grow on tall, vigorous, potato-leaved plants. 

Giant Belgium Heirloom Tomato 90 days
Fruits AVERAGE 2 pounds, but have been known to reach 5 (FIVE).  Deep pink, meaty, sweet and delicious.  One to grow if you’re looking for a whopper. 

Green Zebra *New* 75 Days                                                                                                                                                                        Unique salad type, 3 oz amber with green stripes, real taste treat.  I'm growing this variety at the request of several customers.

Hillbilly Heirloom Tomato 85 days  SOLD OUT
From, (where else?), West Virginia.  Huge yellow-orange tomato with red streaking.  Sweet, fruity flavor. Fruits usually 1 to 2 pounds. It’s a good’un.

Hog Heart Paste Heirloom Tomato  86 days  SOLD OUT
Large and meaty fruit are often double and resemble hearts.  Great flavor fresh, frozen or canned.  Originally from Italy, via Massachusetts.   

Howard German Heirloom Tomato  80 days  SOLD OUT
Local tomato guru Sandee Cook’s favorite tomato.   The Amish also call them "Pepper Tomatoes". Prolific harvests of 5-1/2 inch long, weirdly pointed paste tomatoes that weigh about 5-8 oz., very meaty with a good, rich flavor. An old variety great for canning, paste, or sauces. Also delicious right off the vine in salads. Just the best all purpose tomato. Very resistant to disease and bugs, as well!

Italian Sweet Heirloom Tomato 85 days  
Large and luscious red beefsteak tomatoes.  Original seed came from a 3 pound tomato found at a farmer’s market.  Incredibly juicy and sweet, and full of that old-fashioned tomato flavor.  This was new to my list last year, but it has gotten rave reviews form customers who grew it.  (The rush of spring and our limited space for tomatoes in last year's garden combined to make me neglect to grow it out myself, a situation which I plan to remedy this season.)  

Jerusalem Heirloom Tomato 
Greene County heirloom.  The story is that a man traveled to Israel, and brought these seeds back with him. Large, firm, meaty oxheart type, with few seeds and not a great deal of juice.  Great for slicing. The best tomato for California Pie.  Rich flavor is fantastic- the perfect blend of sweet and acid. Vines are quite manageable, and very productive over a long season.

Lillian’s Yellow Heirloom Tomato  88 days   SOLD OUT
Tennessee heirloom unique for its pale, not golden, yellow fruit.  Superb, creamy consistency, meaty flesh, and complex, rich flavor. Sweet & juicy, but with few seeds.  A top 10 heirloom.  Make a yellow tomato soup, salsa or pie.

Mama Leone Heirloom Tomato  *NEW* 75 days  SOLD OUT
This excellent, large pointed plum tomato comes from Italy via a family who immigrated to New York.  You can expect a large harvest of these 5 to 6 oz. bright red tomatoes.

Mexico Heirloom Tomato 80 days 
It is rare to find a beefsteak tomato with outstanding flavor that is produced in large numbers over a long season, but Mexico does just that.  Fruits are 1 lb. plus, and wonderfully tasty.  From the Midwest, where it was grown by a family from Mexico.  

Mortgage Lifter Heirloom Tomato  85 days
Pink, well-shaped, large, meaty fruit famous for its flavor.  An amateur plant breeder developed this tomato over years of selection.  He paid off a $30,000 mortgage in thee years (way back in the day) by selling plants and tomatoes from his radiator repair shop.

Mr. Stripey (Tigrella) Heirloom Tomato 56 days
HUGE crops. These 2 inch tomatoes are red with clearly-defined yellow stripes. Rich, tangy flavor.  Beautiful in salads, either whole or sliced. 

Old German Heirloom Tomato 75 days   SOLD OUT
Yellow with orange center, oblate 16 oz, sweet flavor.

Opalka Heirloom Tomato 85 days  
So sweet and refreshing, it can be eaten straight off the vine, but is highly prized for sauces and canning.  Fruits are far richer and more flavorful than most paste tomatoes.  A long, pepper-shaped type, fruits grow to 4 to 6" long.

Persimmon Heirloom Tomato  80 days
One of the best flavored of the orange tomatoes.  Beautiful, golden-orange and BIG- between one and two pounds, and averaging 5 inches in diameter.  Meaty with few seeds.  Vigorous and productive, too.

Pineapple  Heirloom Tomato  82 days
My favorite bicolor tomato.  Originally from Kentucky.  Meaty and smooth texture, with lots of juice. Fruity and sweet, low acid flavor.  Large, up to a pound or more.  Fruits are absolutely gorgeous; yellow with red streaking.  Especially pretty sliced.

Polish Linguisa Heirloom Tomato 73 days  
Loaded with vitamins, fiber and potassium, but low in fat and sodium! This 19th Century heirloom has vigorous plants that set loads of fruit.  Fruits are large, 7 to 10 oz. and pie-shaped. Flesh is soft and very sweet.

Purple Russian *New* Heirloom Tomato 80 days  
Plum shape, purplish black 3-4", 6 oz, sweet meaty taste, crack resistant, good shoulder.  

Principe Borghese Heirloom Tomato  75days
Grow this variety for fantastic sun-dried tomatoes. From Italy.  Determinate, but has a long season anyway. This is the seed strain with a nipple at the blossom end, generally considered to have the best flavor.

Pruden’s Purple Heirloom Tomato  72 days  Seed failure
Not really purple, but pink. Great old-time flavor.  Silken texture.  Productive, disease resistant, and early for its size.(1 lb. on average) A top 10 heirloom.  

Red Pear Heirloom Tomato  70days  SOLD OUT
Medium-sized plants yield plenty of small, red, pear-shaped fruits with very few seeds. Perfect for salads, sauces or pickles. One of the rarest of the heirloom varieties. Determinate.

Reisentraube Heirloom Cherry Tomato  80 days
The most true tomato flavor you will find in a cherry type.  The name means a giant bunch of grapes, and that is just what they remind one of. Red fruits are oval and pointed at the blossom end.  Extremely productive.

Rose be Berne Heirloom Tomato 80 days 
A superior medium-sized pink tomato with the robust flavor of the beefsteaks. A rich sweetness that other smaller tomatoes just can’t match, and very pretty, too.  Productive plants yield a heavy crop.  A Swiss heirloom. 

Speckled Roman Heirloom Tomato 85 days  
A cross of Antique Roman and Banana Legs. Orange-red, 5" long fruits are a speckled paste-type, marked by irregular yellow stripes. Meaty fruits, real tomato flavor and few seeds. One bite is sure to make it one of your favorites!

Sprite Tomato *NEW* 60 days  Determinate   SOLD OUT
One of my tomato seed suppliers insisted I try this productive little grape tomato variety. This plant will stay short and manageable, even in the smallest gardens.  Try it in container plantings with basil, if you like.  Extremely productive; sweet, red, thin skinned fruit.

Tidwell German Heirloom Tomato  *NEW* 80 days
Large crops of 1 to 2 lb. pink, meaty beefsteak tomatoes with a sweet and exceptional flavor.  The variety is a family heirloom from David Pendergrass of Tennessee, whose family has been growing this tomato since at lease the 1920's. 

Tiffen Mennonite *New* Heirloom Tomato 80 days 
Large, dark pink, great flavor, smooth texture.

Todd County Amish *New* 85 Days                                                                                                                                                            Pure heaven on a plate!  Big, luscious dark pink fruit.  Handed down from an Amish family living in Minnesota.  Flavor is rich yet sweet, and the interior is almost as meaty as an ox-heart type.  Excellent productivity.  

White Cherry  75 days
Very small cherry tomatoes are a pretty, creamy white.  Very sweet and mild flavor, and extremely productive.  Often requested by name.  Really pretty in salads with edible flowers.

 

For more information on tomatoes, check out this handout and enjoy these great recipes!

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Last modified: 03/12/08