The familiar red that Americans associate with tomatoes is only one of the many colors of this delightful fruit. From pale white ones, very popular with the Victorians, to black and other unfamiliar colors as well. Perhaps the most surprising are the green when ripe ones, which are spicy and sweet. Tomatoes which hale from Russia and its environs are often deep mahogany or brick red tending towards a blackish purple. For those unfamiliar with this coloration, they may be afraid to try it, however the richness of the flavor wins over all who taste them. Be sure to have a look at the Belarusian/Ukrainian/Russian Tomato page as well for more selections of Other Colors of tomatoes.
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Black, Purple Tomatoes
~New for 2009 BLACK BEAR TOMATO RARE -SCARCE-~ I got this great new-to-me black tomato in a seed trade with N.M., my southern friend and "master of tomatoes." I have not found another commercial source of this great tomato, so I feel it may be rare and/or scarce. It is another great "black" tomato, with all those attributes that make us love the "blacks" so well. Smooth, creamy taste with that touch of rich wine flavor that I so love in a tomato, don't you?. These tended to vary a bit in shape and size ( see photo) but did not crack or "catface" like so many black tomatoes can. The vine was short and compact and didn't get out of hand like so many do. Rather early and it really seemed to take the late summer better than most fruits. I though it was prolific for such a small plant and such large fruits. My fruits tended to be 1/2 to 3/4 of a pound (lb) and this was a severe drought and extra cool summer here in Amishland. I imagine in a better summer they would top out at a pound. I love the name and loved this good eating, slicing tomato as well. Try this rare beauty for yourself and see if you can "bear" to live without it! To the best of my knowledge I may be the only commercial seed source for these seeds. 10 fresh organically raised seeds.
CARBON TOMATO ~A Perfect Black~ I had heard of Carbon for several years, and I have a liking for the traditionally rich flavor of black tomatoes. So I figured I would give it a try. Carbon was a nearly perfect midsized tomato that came in mid season and kept up nicely all season long. It grew on not out of hand vines that hardly needed staking. The really great thing about this tomato, was that unlike many of the dark hued ones, this one had great perfect mostly round fruit with little or no catfacing or cracks. Fruits were mostly 8 to 12 ounces with some getting larger, as in the photo. I really liked this one , nice and prolific. A great one to add to your "black" collection.
10 fresh organically raised seeds.
TIM'S "BLACK RUFFLES" TOMATO LIMITED QUANTITIES~ORDER EARLY! - My friend Tim M. has a degree in botany and ecology, and worked under the tutelage of famous gardener, writer and foodways scholar, William Woys Weaver, (author of many books including my favorite : "Heirloom Vegetable Gardening"). Tim experimented for years with this fantastic tomato cross. After several seasons he stabilized it and he gave me a few plants and I grew them out this summer. They are the deepest shiny garnet purple and very "ruffled" or "pleated" as its called in tomato nomenclature. This is his stable cross of 2 great tomatoes: Black Krim and Zapotec Pink Pleated. In this great new tomato, you get an even deeper purple color from its black parent and the fabulous ruffled shape from its wild Mexican Zapotec heritage. Black Krim is described by Seed Saver's Exchange thus : "BLACK KRIM: Deep dark purplish black skin with brick red flesh. Unusual rich smoky flavor, very intense. An early and heavy producer. From the Black Sea region of Russia. Introduced by Lars Olov Rosenstrom of Bromma, Sweden through the Seed Savers Exchange in 1990."
Here is how I describe the other parent tomato, my ZAPOTEC PINK PLEATED : " Very Rare ~ Traditional Heirloom ~ My seed came originally from the Zapotec people of Oaxaca, Mexico. The Zapotecs, who live remotely in the high dry mountains of Mexico, call these "tomate enrrollado rojo". This is a real showstopper tomato! These unusual sweet, mild, fruits are large and pink with ruffles like a pleated dress. ! Its pleated shape makes it very ornamental. Wonderful sliced to show off its pretty scalloped edges. They can be stuffed and baked like a bell pepper or delicious served raw in salads. About 1/2 pound each or more. Yields are prolific. I truly believe these are the most ornamental tomatoes you can grow".
The result of Tim's breeding work is this wondrous new variety, which he calls "Black Ruffles". Great sweet ,smoky taste, and a saturated lacquered color like no other tomato. Prolific yields and one of the few tomatoes that did not suffer from this past wet, rainy season. It kept pumping out these unusually lovely fruit until hard frost. The only other tomato to even come close to this deep purple color is the elusive "Purple Calabash" which I also sell. -These seeds are not available anywhere else! You can only buy them from me on my website.If you live near Lancaster, PA, Tim will be selling seedling plants of his tomato next spring at the " Landis Valley Museum Herbe Faire". 10 of my own fresh organically grown seeds
PURPLE CALABASH TOMATO About 10 years ago a savvy gardening friend spoke of the "ugliest but best tasting tomato he'd ever eaten". He and I have searched for this "holy grail" of tomatoes all these years and I finally found it and grew it out this season. It is the "Purple Calabash". It has the most deeply colored, true deep purple fruit I have ever seen. Small 3" pumpkin shaped fruit with deep ribs smother the vines. It has a very deep purple interior as well, with a strange forest green jell. The complex flavor is hard to describe, almost like a fruity merlot wine. You have never tasted such a rich, unworldly,
"untomato-ey" tomato.
Just fabulous flavor and so showy in the garden. People spotted its dark fruits right away and asked about them. Finally you too can have this rare, rich gem. I think this may be my new favorite tomato. 10 fresh organically grown seeds.
BLACK BRANDYWINE TOMATO
This black version of the legendary heirloom Brandywine Tomato has fruit with the same luscious flavor of Pink Brandywine combined with the deep, creamy richness of classic black tomato taste. it has the same flattened beefsteak shape and alightly smaller size as Brandywine, but this fruit is more like the color of deep brick mahogany. Tomatoes are 8 to 14 oz. and grow on vigorous plants. I grew out 3 varieties of black tomatoes this season and these had by far the best taste and bigger size to boot. They get darker in color the cooler the weather is. 10 of my own fresh organically grown seeds
White Tomatoes
GRANDMA JOSIE'S AMISH WHITE TOMATO ~NEW FOR 2009-EXCLUSIVE- Only USA Commercial Seed Source!-GENUINE AMISH HEIRLOOM~ 90+ days in Zone 6A- I got the original seeds for this fabulous Amish Heirloom in a seed trade with my tomato collector friend, N.M. This genuine Amish heirloom tomato hails from Virginia. This very rare tomato was an outstanding addition to my Amish seed collection, and my absolutely favorite tomato I grew out this season. Despite a severe drought and unseasonably cold temperatures here in Amishland, Grandma Josie's Amish White, out outperformed all other large beefsteak varieties. It grew huge 1 pound (lb) or more fruit. A bit later to ripen, it was well worth the wait. It now supercedes my previous favorite white tomato, my rare "Fantome du Laos." Monster fruit were each positively perfect despite their very large size. They had no brown spots or cracking that the white tomatoes are prone to get. Each fruit was luscious and oh so pretty with a very slight pink color on the blossom end on only a few larger specimens. Most of the fruits were a solid white color. The interior was very firm, solid and quite meaty. There was virtually no jel (gel) and very few seeds. good for you - bad for a seed saver such as myself). Just perfect monster slicers with great flavor but still very low acid. To the best of my knowledge, I am the only commercial seed source of these seeds. 10 of my own fresh organically grown seeds.
"FANTOME DU LAOS" ~ "GHOST OF LAOS" ~Exceedingly Rare-only commercial source in USA!~ I am so excited about this super rare southeast Asian Tomato. I got my seeds in a seed trade with a Belgium collector and this is the rough translation of what he wrote to me in French about this tomato:
"Old variety originating from Laos, large fruits white-yellowish slightly flattened. Very vigorous and very productive plant (it is most productive which we cultivated this year!). Excellent resistance to the diseases. Sweet flavour. There is a strange legend about this variety: the nights of full moon, the villagers deposit it on the edges of the windows and if the tomato becomes fluorescent, a ghost is not far!"
I love this ghostly apparition tale . The Asians, however think of the souls of their dearly departed as ghosts, in a good way. This story is really about how a dead relative comes back to visit. It is not about haunting as you might think.
The tomato itself had so much to recommend it besides this cool legend. It was my earliest tomato this season, even beating out my Ukrainian and Russian plants! It was a full 2 weeks earlier to ripen than any tomato in my garden. And it was huge, and had a really unbelievable coloration. It literally was an opalescent white and truly seemed to glow! It was impossible to photograph that quality of light coming from the fruit. They are the most gorgeous white tomatoes I have ever grown with not one bit of pink on them ,all pure ivory white.
They tended to put out double fruits as well. And it kept on sending out these lovely orbs of light all season long. It lasted until light frost. Great, sweet, mild flavor and virtually no acid. To the best of my knowledge, I am the only one offering these seeds for sale in the USA. I never saw any white tomatoes in my travels through southeast Asia. I was in Thailand, Cambodia. Malaysia, and so forth and never saw any fruits but small squatty red or pink ones. This tomato is rare even in its home country. Be the first to grow this super scarce white heirloom. 10 of my own fresh organically grown seeds.
MIKADO WHITE TOMATO BACK AGAIN FOR 2010! -VERY LIMITED QUANTITIES~ ORDER EARLY ~
also known as "Shah" tomato. William Woys Weaver, the famous writer and food historian, refers to this tomato, in his delightful little book 100 Vegetable and Where They Come From , as sport of "Turner's Hybrid" or "Mikado" dating back to 1886. It is sometimes referred to as the "White Brandywine " due to its fabulous flavor. The name Mikado refers to the Gilbert and Sullivan operetta that was popular at that time. It has grey green potato leaf shaped leaves on a small and sturdy vine. The flesh is white with a pale yellow interior and sometimes has a small pale pink star on the blossom end. Some of my fruit did and others were pure white. This makes a good drying tomato with a great flavor that intensifies when it dries but it is also very sweet and delicious when eaten for salads.Try white tomatoes like this one on a mixed plate of rainbow colors for a great dish sure to impress. Make a real white tomato spaghetti sauce too. Like all white tomatoes there is low acid content. Be the first in your area to grow this very rare white tomato. You will love to tell its story, and it makes a great gift for an opera lover. Please be sure to see my "Mikado Pink Tomato " listed at the top of my Pink Tomato Page.
10+ of my own fresh organically grown seeds.
WHITE TOMESOL - BACK AGAIN FOR 2010!
- I have always had a fondness for white tomatoes, but many are just plain bland. This newly rediscovered heirloom is fabulous! It has a wonderful fragrance, and for taste it is way up on my "tomato-taste-o-meter". Sweet , and creamy rich with great flavor, especially for a white fruit. These are not as pure white, as some of my other white tomato selections. They are more on the creamy pale yellow side of white and tend to have a pretty pink blossom end when ripe. You are sure to want these pretty, pale, blushing beauties in your garden. The superb flavor and low acidity more than makes up for their lack of pure white color.Personally, I think these smallish, 8 oz. tomatoes are just beautiful. The plant grows to a reasonable size , with heavy yields, but doesn't get out of control like many tomato vines. It is indeterminate, which means it sets its lovely fruit all season. 10 of my own fresh organically grown seeds
OLIVER'S GERMAN WHITE / WEISSE TOMATO - BACK FOR 2009! I have always loved white tomatoes and have grown out many varieties. This is absolutely the purest white tomato I have ever grown! These have no pink, no blossom end marks, no yellow, just "pure-as-the-driven-snow" white flesh and skin. I got my original seeds from my German friend, Oliver, in a seed trade. He called them "Weisse", which is German for white. These had the most unusual growth habit, short vines in height, maybe 4-1/2 feet, but amazingly long branches, over 7-8 feet long, growing sideways! These were tough plants, they even survived a wind storm where they were totally uprooted. I put them back in the ground and they still took off. I guarantee you have never seen a whiter tomato. It has delicate mild flavor. To myknowledge, this tomato has never been available before in the United States.
10 of my own fresh organically grown seeds.
