When I wrote last month about the heirloom tomato varieties that I plan to grow this year, the white tomatoes got the most attention. I had several emails and comments about White Tomesol in particular. I think it drew the most interest because it is really white. Many other white tomatoes are more of a pale green. I picked White Tomesol specifically because it is so white in color and I was excited to see how it grows.
Finally I got my seed order from Baker Creek and wouldn't you know, there was a note that they were out of White Tomesol! They did give me my money back AND a free pack of Furry Yellow Hog tomatoes. Has anyone ever heard of Furry Yellow Hog?
Anyway, what would I do about this? I already told everyone that I would be growing White Tomesol! After searching the net a while, I finally found another seed company in the US that had it - Amishland Heirloom Seeds. I placed the order and waited impatiently. Today, they arrived!
In addition to the White Tomesol, I bought Glick's Brandywine from them. They also included a free pack of tomato seeds - Pink Flamingo Ukranian heirloom tomatoes. Of course I have to plant them too, but this is getting ridiculous! To recap, here is the list of the heirloom tomatoes I will be attempting in 2008 (in alphabetical order so as to not indicate favoritism):
Aunt Ruby's German Cherry Aunt Ruby's German Green Black Cherry Black Krim Brandywine Brandywine (Glick's strain) Caspian Pink Delicious Dixie Golden Giant Egg Yolk Furry Yellow Hog Great White Green Moldovan Green Zebra Kellogg's Breakfast Kentucky Beefsteak Pink Flamingo Ukranian Principe Borghese Prudens Purple and of course, White Tomesol!
To make my tomato growing production even more crazy, I will also be growing a number of hybrids. I love the heirlooms, but since there are pros and cons to growing them, I want to include some excellent hybrids too.
To make the list complete, here are this year's hybrid tomatoes:
4th of July Burpee's Supersteak Celebrity Early Girl Golden Girl La Rossa Lemon Boy New Girl Orange Blossom Park's Whopper Roma Siletz Sub Artic
In case you weren't counting, that's 33 different tomato varieties. Yikes! I know I should edit some out, but I could tell you a good reason for all of these. I wrote about why I grow so many different tomatoes last year when I thought 20 varieties was a lot. In a nutshell, some of these are early types, some are cherry types, some regular types, some beefsteaks, some paste types, and of course we have the many different colors to aim for.
I know, I know, call me obsessed. I wonder what my wife will say when I tell her that we are doubling the size of the vegetable garden to accommodate over 60 tomato plants.
It's an addiction, I know - but won't the White Tomesol tomatoes be cool? (the original reason for this post)