New for
2012!
Big White Pink Stripe
($5.50)
Here's my new favorite white tomato!
Ripening to a pale creamy peach shade it's brimming with summer's
passionate promise of warm-from-the-sun homegrown tomato delight.
At 4 to 5 inches and 2 1 to 2 lbs, heavy with juice and creamy silken
texture, this one is a real knockout. With just the right amount
of subtle tang, impress your guests with a slice of Big White Pink
Stripe and let its sweet melon-like flavor linger in your mouths as your
eyes roll back in head with pure tomato love.
A Laurel's exclusive.
New
for 2012!
Brown Berry ($5.50)
What a treat! This very sturdy plant produces hundreds of
perfectly round, chocolate colored cherry tomatoes. Mistakenly called
Chocolate Cherry in some arenas, Brown Berry's rich flavors are
reminiscent of Chocolate Amazon and Chocolate Stripes, not cloyingly
sweet -- but an elegant balance of sweet and tang in a perfect little
mahogany morsel. Really juicy and prolific, this garden candy makes a
delightful presentation on a colorful cherry tomato platter.
Disease resistant and easy to grow.
Not to be missed!
Back for 2012
by
popular demand!
Chocolate Stripes
($5.50) I'm sorry!
I like to change the list a bit
every year but was not ready for the hue and cry for Chocolate Stripes.
After removing it from the list in
2009, I was bombarded by horrified customers who could not live without it
and were freaked out by not seeing it for 2010 or 2011, so I grew it as a
special order for several customers. I've been hearing more and more from
folks who really want it back --so, it's ba-ack!
Among the largest of the black
tomatoes, this one was among the top 3 winners of TomatoFest 2007. Reaching
4 inches and ripening to mahogany brown with dark olive green stripes,
these fruits have enormous old-time tomato flavor and an appearance similar
to Black Zebra, but huge! A plentiful harvest, stunning beauty and
out-of-this-world taste make Chocolate Stripes a rare treat in your garden.
A Laurel's exclusive.
New for 2012!
Druzba ($5.50)
Replacing Goose Creek, which is no longer available, this has
been a very special favorite of mine which I've grown in my personal stash
for many years. Because it's such an extraordinary variety, I
have sent plants of Druzba as an alternate for Goose Creek when Goose Creek
plants were too small to ship.
Soon I began getting calls from
customers who liked it even better than Goose Creek and begged me to send
them another Druzba! So, I've decided to include it for 2012. I think
you will agree that it has an incredibly robust, rich, concentrated tomato flavor
borne in smooth, perfectly round, deep-red, blemish-free 10 ounce fruits
with excellent disease resistance and high production. The name Druzba
means friendship in Bulgarian. :)
New for 2012!
Foxy Lady
($5.95)
(E)
(HG) 
(70
to 75 days). This rapturous little cousin of Purple Haze is the
newest addition to our heirloom tomato selection. My seeds for this
exquisite 1” deep purple cherry tomato come from Dana Ferrin of Seattle, who
grew out the Original Purple Haze for four generations to see if it would
grow true-to-variety. He sent me some seeds to grow out and to our delight,
the resulting fifth generation fruit is a half-sized, full flavored, sweet
and sassy little 1 oz. cousin to Purple Haze which I’ve named Foxy Lady. The
flavor, very much like Purple Haze, is energizing, elaborate and dazzling
with a sweet, seductive background of earthy nuance and lingering flavors. I
was mesmerized by the flavors of these cute little heartbreakers.
Early ripening and growing in
mass abundance on big plants in clusters of 5 to 7 fruits, Foxy Lady ripens
in only 70-72 days from plant out. Unlike the regular-leafed Purple Haze,
Foxy Lady has some of the biggest potato type leaves I’ve ever seen, they'll
make you wanna get up and scream...
and just like the Original Purple Haze, which is also available for 2012,
Foxy Lady has a muted, subtle saltiness along with a tiny touch of tang to
balance its big full-bodied sugar.
Got
to be all mine, all mine….
Dana has donated seeds so we can
grow and offer this very rare plant to our customers and donate part of the
proceeds to TACA, Talk About Curing Autism.
www.talkaboutcuringautism.org. Thank you, Dana!
Supply is limited, please order
early. A Laurel's exclusive.
NOTE: A portion of the proceeds from Foxy Lady will be donated to
TACA, Talk About Curing Autism, to assist families of autistic children.
Donations will be made in the names of a couple of very fine and winsome
young fellows, Caleb and Ethan.
www.talkaboutcuringautism.org.
New for 2012!
Gary'O Sena (Gary 0h SEE nah)
(Yes, the apostrophe goes there.) ($6.50)
70-75 days.
These
incredibly flavored, 1 lb. fruits,
a pink-purple variety from a Brandywine crossed with Cherokee Purple,
have the characteristics and qualities of Cherokee Purple on hearty,
vigorous, indeterminate disease resistant, potato leafed plants.
Combining the excellent
fruit set and unmatched flavors of the Brandywine and Cherokee Purple parents,
you get the higher production of Cherokee Purple with plants that set more
fruit and produce earlier!
First fruits have been recorded as early as 68
days.
Fabulous flavor,
production and disease resistance.
From Keith Mueller, my tomato
mentor, my friend and fellow rock 'n' roller from Kansas City MO. Named after his
beloved Irish Grandma.
A Laurel's
exclusive.
New for 2012!
Kentucky Beefsteak ($5.50) 90
days. This fabulous very old 2 lb. Kentucky heirloom is noted for it's
intensely sweet flavor and huge size along with an unusually high
production. I've decided to include it for 2012 because I'd sent it as an
alternate for Kellogg's Breakfast when they were too small to ship and many
customers fell madly in love with Kentucky Beefsteak. The outrageously rich
flavor, disease resistance and reliable production will make this
late-season variety a real treasure worth waiting for in your garden.
New
for 2012!
Purple Calabash ($5.50)
80 days.
One of the
oldest know heirloom varieties, from the 1700's, Purple Calabash is a
beautiful
2" to 3" deeply ruffled,
heat and drought tolerant variety with a strong, rich luxurious almost
wine-like flavor. Picking at the perfect moment of ripeness takes a little
practice but the reward is enormous. Sweet and tangy, deeply ruffled,
chocolate brown to deep purple color, it will be a conversation piece on
your garden tour. Crack resistant and disease resistant.
New for 2012!
Purple Dog Creek ($5.95) 80
days. (B)
The
finest of the big purples, with awesome unforgettable flavor.
This extremely rare old family
heirloom is from Dog Creek in Hart County, Kentucky.
Purple Dog Creek tomatoes are
gorgeous deep purplish-pink fruits, 1 to 1½ lbs. each with the old-time
rich, heavenly flavors you long for in your tomato patch.
Very hardy and disease resistant,
they stand up to cold temps and weird weather.
Seeds for my plants are from
Amishland Seeds owner, Lisa Von Saunder.
If I may paraphrase her notes:
"This super big, deep pink
tomato was the biggest surprise of the season. Not only huge and
everything wonderful in a tomato, but there is a heartwarming story about their origin. This tale is what makes hunting for heirlooms such
fun."
"At a picnic supper given for a
Martinsburg, West Virginia church group, these tomatoes were
given as a thank you gift for church volunteers who did
home improvements for local low income, elderly folks."
"The tomatoes were such a hit,
the preacher asked if there were seeds to share. One gentleman at the supper said the
tomatoes were from his garden and went home to fetch seeds. The seeds
continued to be passed along until I received them from my southern tomato
collector friend who has since passed on."
"They are without a doubt one of
the best big purples I have ever had the privilege to eat. And trust me, I
have eaten my share of wonderful big pink fruits. Indescribably delicious, I
can't come up with enough superlatives to cover their taste. Meaty and
lovely and oh so large. Complex blend of sweetness with a deep purplish-pink
hue."
Lisa Von Saunder's photograph of Purple Dog Creek is used here with her
gracious permission.
New for 2012
