Tag Archives: tomato varieties

The Tomato Lady Is Back!

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Cherokee Carbon and Chocolate Cherry seedlings

 It’s been a while. I must apologize as I guess I am not as invincible as I thought. Just a little catch-up here – I finally got my permanent knee replacement after dealing with a temporary one for 10 months. Every step hurt. November 10th it was put in, just 2 days after Thanksgiving, my knee collapsed and I fell down, breaking my femur in two places! Who does that? I guess go big or go home, right? I have been walking with full weight for the last two weeks after two months of being confined to a recliner. That was tough. I made it and am doing that overachieving thing again. I can’t tell you how happy I am to be on my feet although it still hurts a bit, unused muscles and all.

Jalapeno “M”

I currently have over 350 varieties of tomatoes this year and over a hundred varieties of peppers. I have the elusive Cougar Reds this year, and then some. Last year I couldn’t find them in stock anywhere. 

Red and Pink Brandywine seedlings grown for the gallon pots.

I just finished planting seeds for the main crop this morning and already have 3000 plants almost ready to go into gallon pots in a couple of weeks. We switched to LED lights and are really impressed. The peppers look amazing, better than any that I sold last year!

February 20 Main crop of tomato seeds
Cougar Reds

I will be starting vegetables soon, including cauliflower and broccoli and have flowers going also. 

I have had to redo my website which means learning another software program. It’s taking a while. Keep on eye out for it plus my Facebook page. I will have more news there. Hoping to open mid-April. 

Stump of the World/Big Ben: What’s In A Name? Another New Offering For 2019 From The Tomato Lady

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Introduced by the late Ben Quisenberry, Ohio. this is an indeterminate, potato leaf plant producing a good yield of large, 1 lb., dark pink, meaty tomatoes. Small seed cavity. The variety was part of the Ben Quisenberry Collection, which also contributed the variety Brandywine. Stump of the World also known by some as Big Ben, is a bit smaller and more productive than Brandywine, but like Brandywine, offers outstandingly rich flavor An historic and VERY popular variety for marketplace appeal.

The name: one theory is that this variety was named by Ben Quisenberry after a bible reference, as Ben was a very spiritual man. The speculation is that the ‘Stump’ being referred to is the stump or root of Jesse in the bible.

In my research on this tomato, I found an interesting article written by The Seed Savers Exchange on the background of this tomato name. the link is below.

http://blog.seedsavers.org/blog/tomato-tasting-winners

Whatever the origin, I truly do love the Brandywines and am always anxious to try others by Mr. Quisenberry. He was a legendary seedsman.

Brad’s Atomic Grape Tomato – The Tomato Lady’s New Offering 2019

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This is a gorgeous tomato. I am not of the camp that says “if it’s not red, it’s not a tomato”. If it has stripes or blotches or is an unusual color, I will grow it. Or at least try it.

This is an introduction from Wild Boar Farms and it won “best in show” at the 2017 National Heirloom Expo.

Elongated, large cherries in clusters. The color is a full-blown assault on the senses—lavender and purple stripes, turning to technicolor olive-green, red, and brown/blue stripes when fully ripe. The flavor is supposed to be sweet. It sure is pretty!

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These range some in size from a large grape to plum-sized.

I always read the reviews before I purchase new seed. It reminded me how every year is different due to weather, what you put in your beds to condition the soil when you plant etc. The only tomato I have found to be 95% delicious and flavorful all the time is the Sungold. I will grow the same tomato three years in a row and will love it 2 out 3 years. I will recommend a certain tomato and 5 out or 7 people will love it and the others won’t. Until they plant it again.

The reviews range from too sweet, too bland, not sweet enough, prolific, only got 3 tomatoes, brought them in by the basket, most were yellow, absolutely gorgeous colors, plant wilted but recovered, plant became a monster, won’t ever grow again to it’s on my rotation now every year. Go figure.

I always try to give a variety 3 years due to the variables in growing plants. I am excited about this one. Other striped/wild markings such as Chocolate Sprinkles, Blush, and the green Lucky Tiger, I loved. The red Lucky Tiger? Not so much.

I think we all need to live a little and try new things. After all, that’s how I found the lovely, luscious, ever-present in my garden, Sungold.

Momotaro Tomato – Japanese Variety

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I am going to start posting my new tomato offerings for you to see. This one was one I had never heard of and a customer requested it last year. Interestingly enough, I don’t normally think of Japanese cuisine when I think of tomatoes. Who knew?

Momotaro Tomato (F1) is the most popular fresh tomato in Japan. Here in the US, it is marketed as “Tough Boy”. Deep pink, with green shoulders around the stem, these 6 – 7 oz. tomatoes are sweet with a delightful refined flavor and a little bit of tang.

Noted for crack resistance, holding quality, and Verticillium, Fusarium and nematode resistance.

This tomato has some wonderful characteristics and I am happy to offer it under the original name which refers to a hero in Japanese folklore.

Green Grape Tomato

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Green Grape Tomato

What can green do for you? Don’t let the color fool you. this is very, very sweet cherry tomato and it bursts in your mouth with a satisfying juiciness. They are ping pong sized and turn a lovely golden green and give to the touch when they are fully ripe. Yum. They look beautiful in a salad with other colored cherry tomatoes such as black cherry, sungold, sweet million, italian ice and the pink sugary.

“Early” Season Tomatoes

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In our neck of the woods (Inland Northwest – Spokane and surrounding areas) summer seems to come later and later. Lately, June seems to be more rainy than usual. Last year, I started telling everyone that tomatoes were a fall crop!

I entered several in the fair and by the time it rolled around in the beginning of September, I still didn’t have any large tomatoes to share. I had plenty of cherry tomatoes and some smaller varieties but no prize winners… until two weeks after the fair. Sigh. After that, I had billions of tomatoes to eat and share and can (I put up 75 quarts).

One of the ways we cope with our shorter climate (and I have absolute sympathy for Deer Park gardeners) is to plant “early” tomatoes. One thing I have found is that they aren’t substantially earlier than mid-season tomatoes. As for late season, I always get beautiful crops of those also, probably due to our actual frost date being sometime in later October. Here is some info on early tomatoes.

Early season tomatoes ripen fruit in 55 to 70 days after being transplanted to the garden as 6-8 week old plants.

Because great tomato flavor comes with just the right combination of sugars and acids that are the product of sunlight and photosynthesis, early season tomatoes are often dismissed as less tasty than mid- and late-season tomatoes (which require 80 to more than 100 days to ripen) because they spend fewer days in the sun.

Many “early” tomatoes—which are often smaller and less leafy than later season tomatoes–can flower and set fruit in cool, early-season conditions. Given optimal conditions, early-season tomatoes can produce fruit equally flavorful to the best late-season varieties. I like the pink “Early Wonder”, “Stupice”, “Anna Russian”, and “Subarctic Plenty”. Those are very tasty.

Cherry tomatoes are also earlier than the larger varieties but that is another post.

Anna Russian (open-pollinated). Slicing tomato. Pink-red, heart-shaped, 10 oz. fruits; juicy, excellent sweet flavor. 70 days. Indeterminate.

Early Wonder (open-pollinated). Slicing tomato. Dark-pink skinned to 6 oz.; full flavored. 55 days. Determinate.

Stupice (open-pollinated). Slicing tomato. Red-skinned, small to medium-sized to 4 oz.; sweet, juicy. 50 days. Dwarf determinate, compact. For short-season regions. From Czechoslovakia.

Sub Arctic Plenty (open-pollinated). Slicing tomato. Small, round to 2 oz.; good flavor. 50 days. Determinate. Compact. Sets fruit in cold weather. Those were the last to succumb to the weather and I loved the taste.

In order: Anna Russian, Early Wonder, Subarctic, and Stupice.

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