Heirloom Tomatoes

In my garden I only grow Heirloom Tomatoes.  They are, in my opinion, the best tasting and most interesting tasting tomatoes out there.  A blog dedicated specially for heirlooms can be written and there are many sources on the web where you can find information about them.  Start with Wikipedia and dive deeper from there into cultivars and the many varieties.

This is my favorite thing to grow in the garden and I will be dedicating many blog posts to Heirloom Tomatoes.  For now I'd like to share with you the varieties I planted last year and how they did through the rainy summer of 2009.  In total I had 21 tomato plants plus 3 seedings that sprouted up unexpectedly.  Here is what I planted:

1. One Sun Gold - This is a cherry tomato plant with great flavor, generates fruit early and grows at a rapid pace.  I like this one a lot as it is a great producer, very versatile.

 

 Paul Robeson- One plant-  This is a medium black tomato with a very complex flavor.  It was sweet and tangy all at the same time.  What I really liked about this Tomato is that it yielded many tomatoes and did well against the blight.  I plan to grow this one again this year.

Moskvich- 2 Plants - This is a medium, hardy and deep red tomato with great flavor.  Like the Sun Gold, I like this one for the fact that it yields fruit early.

 

Aussie- one plant.  H,I - These are really big red tomatoes with rich flavor and a nice blend of acidity and sugars.  In my opinion they are better than Brandwine

Lemon Boy- one plant.  This is a yellow, medium sized tomato that did very well given the rain last summer.  The flavor of this tomato is very sweet.  The other thing I really liked about this plant was that it produced early.

Cherokee Chocolate- one plant.  This is a dark red, purplish tomato blend that grows medium to large.  Unfortunately this plant did not do very well with the rain and was hit by the blight in early July.  I don't think I will plant his one again.

Aunt Ginny's Purple - one plant.  When the name has purple in it, the tomato was more of a deep pink, very large and had a lot of flavor.  Only complaint is that it did not produce that many tomatoes.

Garden Peach- one plant.  This was a pale yellow tomato that had strangely enough a fuzzy skin like a peach. This plant provided a high yield.  Favor was medium and I used these tomatoes mostly in a mixed salad.

   Jaune Flame - one plant.  This was an orange / red colored tomato, small and very sweet.  It produced well early but the blight took its toll on this plant.  

Green Zebra- one plant.  Very hardy and tangy green striped tomato that I've grown every year.  High yielder and very happy in New England.

Red Zebra - one plant.  Similar to the green zebra, great taste and a very strong small to medium tomato.  Great in salads.

Black Prince - two plants.  A really good and consistent producer of small to medium black tomatoes.  This did very well last year given all the rain.

San Marzano- two plants.  Well, they can never taste as good as the ones from Italy thanks to that wonderful volcanic soil of Vesuvius, but I do grow them every year for the purpose of cooking with them.  They are the your typical plum / pepper shaped red tomatoes that here in New England you should use for cooking and not for salads.

Brandy Wine - one plant.  Large light red widely available Heirloom tomato with a great rich flavor.  Last year the yield was horrible.  Blight hit this one hard.

Black Krim - one plant.  This is a Russian variety that is dark red mahogany colored beefsteak style tomato.  It did well, but was attached by the blight.  

Sun Cherry - one plant.  This tomato plant that was prolific and an early yielder of very sweet red cherry tomato.

Striped German- one plant.  This is a large red / yellow tomato with a lot of flavor.  Unfortunately this only yielded a few tomatoes and did not do well in my garden.