Lots of Heirloom Tomatoes for 2011

I have been studying the seed catalogs and websites since Christmas and have finally come up with a list of at least 25 different open pollinated and heirloom tomatoes to grow this year. Crazy, I know, but I want to re-establish myself as an heirloom tomato gardener.

First of all I bought the Heirloom Tomato Gardener shirt that I mentioned in my
Fun and Unique Gardening Shirts post to get me started, and I really like it.

of course it's winter here, so there isn't any heirloom tomato gardening going on today. We got another inch of snow since this picture was taken last evening (32 inches so far this winter). Just as I was having my daughter take the picture for me, it began snowing like crazy.

You can't see it very well, but I am reacting to how hard the snow was coming down. We had to go inside the greenhouse so the camera wouldn't get too wet (plus I was cold). Inside, I had my daughter take this picture to show you that the shirt even comes with Heirloom Tomato Gardener written on the back!

If you want to know more about the shirt, Click Here.

This post isn't about the tomato t-shirt, however. It's about how excited I am  about growing heirloom tomatoes this season, and which ones I've decided to grow.

Last year, I only grew hybrid tomatoes. We got a good harvest but it just wasn't the same. Heirlooms are so exciting and diverse. So may colors and flavors!

I have decided to continue with the hybrids that worked well for us last year, but to go also back to Heirloom tomato gardening (hence the shirt) full force this year. Not only am I going to grow my old favorites, I'm planning to make up for last year by growing an insane amount of different heirloom varieties.

I have found a new site called TomatoFest.com that will help me with this goal. TomatoFest isn't actually new by any means. They started as an actual Tomato Festival in California in 1990 and have been a seed supplier since 1999.

TomatoFest offers over 600 different tomato varieties! All of them are open pollinated and most are heirlooms.

I don't know how I missed them! I'm sure they would have been my favorite tomato seed supplier all along. I just placed my order with them so here is what I'll be growing this year:

First of all, I have three all time favorite heirloom tomato varieties, Brandywine, Black Krim and Aunt Ruby's German Green. If you only have room for a few heirlooms, these are the ones I would recommend in order:

First Place goes to Brandywine, an Amish heirloom from the 1800's that usually wins first prize in all the tomato taste testing competitions. Almost all the seed companies who carry this will say it is the best. The fruit is not unusual, it is either pink or red. the leaves are what is different from the modern hybrid varieties, more resembling potato leaves. I have written about growing Brandywine tomatoes many times before.
You can read one of those posts here.
I really love Brandywine Tomatoes!

 

I give a close second for flavor to
Black Krim, a Russian heirloom also known as Black Crim or Black Crimson. Black Krim is the correct name though, because it comes from the Isle Krim in the Black Sea. Many people don't like the looks of a black tomato (technically they're purple) but they taste great and ripen earlier than most of the other heirlooms. Last time I grew them, they were the first ripe tomatoes after the extra-early ones. I wrote about that here.

 

The Bronze Medal for my favorite heirloom tomato goes to Aunt Ruby's German Green. This is a large irregular beefsteak type. Once again, many people don't like the idea of green tomatoes. They think green tomatoes are just not ripe yet. True green heirloom tomatoes are green when fully ripe, which sometimes makes it hard to tell when they are ready to pick.
Aunt Ruby's German Green is the only green tomato that I have found so far that I really like. The flavor is amazing. This tomato has a neat history too. It was only introduced recently (1990's) by a woman who got the seed from, who else but her Aunt Ruby - Ruby Arnold from Tennessee. Ruby had been growing it her whole adult life. She got the seed from her German immigrant grandfather, and simply called it "German Green", hence the name since these wonderful tomatoes were Aunt Ruby's German Green tomatoes. I'm looking forward to growing them again this year!

I have reasons why I will be growing the rest of the tomato varieties too, but I will explain that in another post. For now, I will simply list the heirloom tomatoes that I plan to grow. If you want to know more about any of them or see a picture of them, I've linked to TomatoFest's description.

So here they are, announcing the GardenDesk 2011 Heirloom Tomatoes:

• Buckbee's New 50 Day
• Amish Paste
• Costoluto Genovese
• Amana Orange
• Pineapple
• Kellogg's Breakfast
• Principe Borghese
• Isis Candy Cherry
• Blondkopfchen
• Black Cherry
• Snow White
• Ultimate Giant
• Great White
• White Queen
• Chocolate Stripes
• Prudens Purple
• Cherokee Purple
• Japanese Black Trifele
• Ananas Noire
• Green Zebra
• Persimmon
• Mortgage Lifter Radiator Charlie

And we can't leave the reigning three off the list!

• Brandywine
• Black Krim
• Aunt Ruby's German Green

I will only have enough room for one of each plant with two or three of a few choice varieties. I can't wait to get all of these seeds started under lights and get to see an army of little heirloom tomato soldiers. Is it spring yet?

Comments

[heph]

tomatoes looks tasty
:)

[KateinNJ]

I almost ordered that shirt myself. :-)

[Bill Brikiatis]

I enjoyed this post. I agree with you on the Brandywine, mine were great last year and they seem to get better every year. I think I'm going to order the black cherry listed above. I've been searching for a cherry or grape that is open pollinated. Thanks for mentioning it.

[Kell]

So glad you are growing Mortgage Lifter. It is, by far, my favorite. They can be persnickety growers, but man are they worth it. ~ksp

[Miss Rain]

I discovered Tomato Fest this year as well. Great website, great service and great seeds.

I started 11 varieties indoors under T5 fluorescents about six weeks ago, and will plant them out this weekend. I got 100% germination and all the seedlings are stocky and strong. I can't wait!

Here are my choices from tomatofest.com:
Homer Fike's Yellow Oxhart
Juane Flammé
San Marzano Redorta
Italian Heirloom
Bradley
Paul Robeson
Black from Tula
Principe Borghese
Bloody Butcher
Blondkopfchen
Green Zebra

I look forward to your updates!

[Nick]

I realize it's a little late into the 2012 season right now, and the variety I will suggest doesn't have the shortest germination time, but a great heirloom variety, a pinkish red one, is Marianna's Peace. Far and above my favorite for flavor.

[Jonathan]

Great post. I agree. I just got to try my first Aunt Ruby's German Green, definitely one of my favorites along with Brandywine Cowlick. Blondkopfchen is very good and very productive. Also, really like chocolate cherry and snow white. A couple others you might try are Dagma's Perfection and Wapsipinicon Peach. I have 50 some tomatoes out there, and I think Dagma's Perfection is probably my favorite. It is very tasty. I also found out after growing it that Wapsipincon Peach won the Seed Savers taste testing one year. I plan to try the rest of there winners. Great info look forward to seeing what your new favorites are.