Making room for Heirloom Tomatoes!

This will be my 3rd year planting heirloom tomatoes. If you have not tried any, make room for 1 or 2 this year. Their flavor is spectacular and their color and shape fun. I don't think you will be disappointed.


I tried several new ones last year and will be repeating some again this year. Repeats include: Mr. Stripey, Aunt Ruby's German Green, and Green Zebra. New varieties include: Box Car Willie (red), Caspian Pink, Black Krim, Old German (orange) and Orange Oxheart. I purchase all from Steins Gardens--they have a great selection.

Here is what some of these look like.

Mr. Stripey: Although the label shows red with yellow stripes, mine were yellow with red striping. Great flavor, pretty, and prolific!




Aunt Ruby's German Green: This one takes the cake!








The fruit was prolific and huge and had a wonderful flavor. It made an interesting addition to salads. I got 2 of these plants this year.




Green Zebra: A small green and yellow striped fruit. Good, tangy flavor.








Cherokee Purple: By far the most unusual tomato I have ever seen. It was rather mahogany in color. Can't say much about the flavor though. It did not produce many fruits, thus it did not make this year's roster.

Standard repeats are Burpees Lemon Boy and Sweet Cluster. Lemon Boy is a yellow tomato with wonderful fruity flavor, and Sweet Cluster is a small red salad tomato.

As I mentioned last year in Heirloom Tomatoes, Everything Old is New Again?, I cannot plant tomatoes in my veggie garden because of a virus in the soil. So I just cleared out more perennials from my flower garden to make room for my heirloom friends and also plan to try several in pots and planting directly in a bag of top soil. I will let you know how that works out. (I would love to try an upside-down tomato plant but have no place to hang it.)

Can you tell I love tomatoes? There is nothing like that earthy taste of a homegrown tomato. I can hardly wait for that first tomato/mayo sandwich!

Links:
Practically Speaking, Fairly Conservative, Betterbrookfield, RandyMelchert, CNS News, Jay Weber, Mark Levin, Vicki McKenna Jay Weber, The Right View Wisconsin, The Heritage Foundation