HIGH HEAT SPECIALIST

 

Florida 91  ($9.95)
(H) 72 days. (S-D)       (E) 
 

Florida 91 is the perfect choice for extreme heat.

 

This specialty tomato is a very heat tolerant hybrid variety which produces delicious, bright red, 10 ounce, rich, sweet full-flavored tomatoes in only 72 to 80 days. 

 

Our harvest made it though several weeks of high 90's and never slowed down, just kept pumping out these gorgeous beauties.

 

A small semi-determinate plant, growing to 3 - 4 feet, this variety sets fruit easily during high heat, when days are up to 97º or more and night temperatures are 73º to 82º. Very disease resistant.

 

Ideal for slicing onto sandwiches and salads, these sweet tomatoes ripen to be firm, solid but not hard, and resistant to cracking.

 

 

 

 

REALLY SWEET!

Momotaro  ($9.95) (H) (VE)   62 days. (HG) This very popular early-ripening hybrid variety, (and Dolly Parton's favorite tomato), is being offered due to hundreds of requests from my customers who have found Momotaro fruits at Farmer's Markets.

 

It is exceptionally sweet, juicy and just beautiful with a very long shelf life. The 6 ounce fruits are a stunning shade of pink, full flavored, luscious and bountiful on the vine, with superb disease resistance.

 

I smuggled one into an heirloom tasting party, and the folks loved it. The revelation that it was a hybrid was a splendid surprise to the gathered heirloom aficionados and motley crew of tomato gourmets and gourmands. Created quite a ruckus.

 

Named for an ancient legend of Momotaro, or Peach Boy, Momotaro was a baby boy found inside a giant peach by childless peasant farmers who had longed for a child of their own. He grew to be a famous warrior for peace. Among his many achievements: conquering, and then encouraging the ogres of Ogre Island to stop pillaging and be nice ogres. Each year the Momotaro festival in Japan celebrates the legend of this brave and wondrous child.

 

 

 

   

Momotaro Gold ($9.95) (H) 60 to 70 days

 

STOP THE PRESSES!!  This is my new favorite tomato! A stunning summer surprise with scads of 6 to 8 ounce treasures.

 

A very reliable tomato friend told me how fabulous this tomato tasted. "Seriously, Laurel, you gotta grow Momotaro Gold!"

 

So I got seeds and grew out 5 plants in the summer. I watched them grow and ripen, fascinated as they transformed into deeper and deeper shades of gold.

 

Picked the first ripe one in early September with high hopes. Folks, I was blown away. Probably one of the top 10 finest flavored tomatoes... Of. My. Life.

 

Every fruit, perfection. Texture is meaty, silky, not soft or mushy, just perfection. I kept saying."Oh my god. Oh my god." At some point, this marvelous flavor got me to thinking, (hmmm), if Sun Gold was a big tomato, it would taste Just Like This.

 

And so many tomatoes!  Growing on a medium sized plant, not a huge plant, they produced dozens of clusters of gorgeous fruits glimmering in the sun and are still going now, in October!

 

 

 

 

  

 

Thunder Mountain ($8.95)
80 days       

This big, stunning, full-flavored 10 to 14 oz beefsteak tomato -- growing on a compact plant -- was developed by Lee Goodwin of J & L Gardens. As the colors developed, they reminded Lee of the sun setting behind thunder clouds in the skies of New Mexico.

With fruits ripening from deep gold to reddish-orange -- and all the other stormy sunset colors -- he named it Thunder Mountain.  

The flavors are rich, sweet, bold and beautifully balanced, reflecting its marvelous parent lines of Cherokee Purple, Big Rainbow and Bosque Blue.

Not a huge plant, Thunder Mountain grows on a compact vine and produces bountiful crops of 10-14 oz., big-shouldered, orange-red-gold tomatoes with deep stormy-ocean blue around the stem and faint yellow streaking here and there. As if that were not enough, Thunder Mountain grows easily everywhere!  A real work-horse of a plant.

J & L Gardens is in New Mexico's Rio Grande Valley where they grow tomatoes, cucumbers, melons, apples and all kinds of specialty crops for restaurants and Farmers' Markets.

 

 

 

  TOP SELLER

Velvet Night Cherry (Dwarf Plant) ($8.95)

 

This deep purple cherry tomato grows in great abundance on a small dwarf plant. If you have a limited garden space and crave a really sweet, rich flavored cherry tomato, this is the one for you!

 

Very high production of 1 to 2 oz. cherry tomatoes will keep your tomato taste buds really happy all season long -- and you'll have enough to share with loved ones.

This tomato was selected out and named by Susan Oliverson of the Dwarf Tomato Project.

 

 

 

 

Wee Tang Shebang (Dwarf plant) ($8.95)
55 - 60 days

 

Another dazzling heirloom from legendary tomato breeder Tom Wagner.

 

Although I don't know if Sun Gold is in its parent line, if you love Sun Gold, this is the plant for you!

 

I would describe Wee Tang Shebang as  a petite plant, small as heirlooms go. Producing scads of gorgeous golden-orange tomatoes with all the dazzling flavor of Sun Gold, it's a small plant, about 4 to 5 ft tall and covered with tomatoes.

 

Ellie Pong of Bunny Hop Seeds sent me a sample of this one a couple of years ago.  Adrienne loved the name and grew out some plants in our nursery. When it started producing I asked her, "Hey, what the heck is that?" She said, "Look at the label, Mom."

 

The flavor is SO good, I chose it over any other golden-yellow-orange cherry plants. A thousand times tastier. Crack resistant.

 

(Of the 30 in Adrienne's photograph, only one cracked! (YAY!)

 

 

 

 

 Top Seller!

 

Wild Fred (Dwarf Plant) ($8.95)
      A Laurel's Favorite

Lots of big gorgeous purple/black tomatoes grow in abundance on a strong, stocky 3 to 4 ft. dwarf plant. Disease resistant and producing big crops of large yummy tomatoes in all kinds of weather, the flavor is outstanding.

Heavy in your hand, this juicy, beefsteak type fruits grow to 6 to 10 ounces with thin skin and the deep, smoky, juicy, aromatic flesh you find in Carbon which is one of its parent lines (along with New Big Dwarf).

This big, tasty variety was named by Craig LeHoullier, for his dad Wilfred after a memorable typo of Wilfred's name in a church bulletin.

A fabulous cross made in 2005 by Bruce Bradshaw in California.