Radishrain

I'm growing some tomatillos in a container. However, in one of the containers (not with the biggest of the tomatillo plants that I'm growing), it's chalk full of purslane! I don't know how it got there in such large numbers, but it did.

Purslane is edible and I like the idea of having it in a container where cats aren't as likely to urinate on it. I decided to snip some off and eat it. It tastes better than the purslane I purposefully grew from seed in 2015, 2016 or so. It's pretty good. Anyway, I plan to keep it and periodically prune it to eat.

Here's a picture (I snipped off a portion of plants with scissors, at the front):



I'm not sure which species of Portulaca these plants are.

tomatillo_

https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/byu–hawaii-student-team-is-eradicating-poverty-one-farmer-at-a-time

The above article tells about Elvin Laceda's venture to help remove the poverty of farmer's in the Philippines. He educates them and provides opportunities.

I imagine the same sort of thing could help people in other countries.

Brandywine tomato

Offsite articles:
• Dave's Garden
• Tatiana's TOMATObase
• WebGrower.com
• Wikipedia

Offsite forum search results:
• Google: boards.net
• Google: Dave's Garden
• Google: freeforums.net
• Google: Gardenweb
• Google: proboards.com
• Google: Tomatoville

Offsite threads not included above:
• TomatoJunction: Which Brandywine strains, and your experiences with them? (post #22746; 17 June 2020)

Vendors:
• Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds
• Johnny's Selected Seeds (Quisenberry Strain)

*****

It's hard to imagine a more popular tomato than Brandywine. I don't know that there is one, especially among heirlooms. Many have considered it the best-tasting, or among the best-tasting. Although Brandywine started out as a single variety, the term without any qualifiers is now, in my opinion, quite ambiguous, and it's hard to say that your Brandywine is the same as someone else's unless you got it from the same store, or unless you know which particular strain it is. There are lots of strains. If you know the strain, please always say it as part of the breed name (instead of just saying Brandywine).

I had a friend who grew Brandywine in 2014, as well as one other variety. She gave me some unripe fruits, which I think were Brandywine, but they may have been the other tomato (she said the other tomato was striped, and these were not striped). Her plants were prolific (although she said they took a long time to ripen). Her fruits were orange-ish red to my eyes (some people appear to call that color pink, and Brandywine tomatoes are actually supposed to be pinker than that), and were beefsteak-shaped to a more smooth shape. They tasted pretty great (after I let them ripen), and they had lots of seeds. I grew some of those seeds in 2015 (a plant from each fruit shape). The fruits I grew looked similar, but they tasted a lot different, and they weren't as prolific (it was a bit of a disappointment).

Most of the Brandywine types I've tried in my garden haven't tasted terribly great (and many have been mealy). I think they must prefer warmer soil or something (ours is a clay/silt to clay/silt loam type, which insulates well, and has a habit of staying cool). I think my friend grew hers in straw bales. However, Brandy Boy F1 and the cross of it that I'm breeding with, have done excellently, and tasted great (granted they had black plastic to warm the soil). I'd like to try Brandywine again with black plastic, some day.

Brandywine (Sudduth's Strain), which I believe is the same as the Quisenberry strain, tends to be regarded as the most authentic Brandywine we have today. Johnny's Selected Seeds was given pure seed.

heirloom_tomato

Hillbilly Potato Leaf

Offsite articles:
• Dave's Garden
• Specialty Produce
• Tatiana's TOMATObase

Offsite forum search results:
• Google: Dave's Garden
• Google: Gardenweb
• Google: proboards.com
• Google: Tomatoville

Blog posts:
• https://flyingtomato.wordpress.com/tag/hillbilly-potato-leaf/

Vendors:
• Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds
• Pase Seeds
• Reimer Seeds
• Renaissance Farms
• Seed Savers Exchange
• timeless-tomatoes.com

Related breeds:
• Hillbilly tomato

*****

heirloom_tomato

Hillbilly tomato

This thread is about the regular leaf Hillbilly tomato.

Offsite articles:
• Dave's Garden
• Specialty Produce
• Tatiana's TOMATObase
• Wikipedia

Vendors:
• Burpee
• Restoration Seeds
• Territorial Seed Company
• TomatoFest
• Totally Tomatoes

Offsite forum search results:
• Google: Dave's Garden
• Google: Gardenweb
• Google: proboards.com
• Google: Tomatoville

Related breeds:
• Hillbilly Potato Leaf tomato

*****

heirloom_tomato

Big Rainbow tomato

Offsite articles:
• Dave's Garden
• Tatiana's TOMATObase
• Wikipedia

Offsite forum search results:
• Google: Dave's Garden
• Google: freeforums.net
• Google: Gardenweb
• Google: proboards.com
• Google: Tomatoville

Vendors:
• Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds
• Burpee
• Everwilde Farms Inc
• Ferry~Morse
• growOrganic.com (Peaceful Valley)
• Harvesting History
• The Home Depot
• John Scheepers Kitchen Garden Seeds
• MIgardener
• The Mauro Seed Company
• New Hope Seed Company
• Piedmont Farm and Garden Supply
• Pinetree Garden Seeds
• Pase Seeds
• Reimer Seeds
• Renaissance Farms Heirloom Tomatoes
• Sandia Seed Company
• SeedsNow
• Southern Exposure Seed Exchange
• timeless-tomatoes.com
• Tomato Growers Supply Company
• TomatoFest
• Totally Tomatoes
• Trade Winds Fruit
• Urban Farmer (ufseeds.com)
• Victory Seeds

*****

I grew the Big Rainbow tomato in 2015, but it was in poor soil and probably had spider mites. It didn't produce that year. It's supposed to be an excellent tomato, however. Large fruit, mild flavor. Bicolor flesh.

Big Rainbow is one of the most popular heirloom tomatoes. Read the reviews at Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds. Many people love it.

heirloom_tomato

Green Zebra tomato

Breeder: Tom Wagner

Offsite articles:
• Dave's Garden
• Tatiana's TOMATObase
• Wikipedia

Vendors:
• Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds
• timeless-tomatoes.com

Offsite forum search results:
• Google: boards.net
• Google: Dave's Garden
• Google: freeforums.net
• Google: Gardenweb
• Google: proboards.com
• Google: Tomatoville

*****

Green Zebra is a small, striped, green-when-ripe (GWR) tomato. Many people say it has a zing to its taste.

I grew the Green Zebra tomato in 2015. I think I got the seeds from a trade. I had to retransplant it (into tough soil) after I originally transplanted it. So, it didn't get a fair trial. Nevertheless, I got some fruits, and they did taste good. I prefer the taste to that of Orange and Green Zebra (which I grew in 2017). I wasn't terribly impressed with its production and texture, though, but that could be because of the conditions. The zing wasn't as powerful as I had anticipated, but it was present.

Green Zebra is a very popular tomato (one of the most popular online, it seems.)

heirloom_tomato

Cherokee Purple tomato

Traits:
• Fruit color: black
• Fruit shape: beefsteak
• Fruit size: large
• Growth habit: indeterminate
• Leaf type: regular leaf
• Maturity: midseason
• Uses: slicer

Offsite articles:
• Bonnie Plants
• Dave's Garden
• Los Angeles Times
• Mother Earth Gardener Growing Organically
• Slow Food USA (Slow Food Arc of Taste)
• Specialty Produce
• Tatiana's TOMATObase
• Tractor Supply Company
• Wikipedia

Vendors:
• Burpee
• Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds
• Fedco Seeds
• Ferry~Morse
• Harris Seeds
• High Mowing Seeds
• The Home Depot (plant)
• HRSeeds
• Johnny's Selected Seeds
• Joy Grow
• Lowes (potted plant)
• Reimer Seeds
• SeedsNow
• Seeds of Change
• Southern Exposure Seed Exchange
• Tennessee Urban Farm
• Territorial Seed Company
• Thomas Jefferson's Monticello
• timeless-tomatoes.com
• Tomato Growers Supply Company
• TomatoFest
• Totally Tomatoes
• Truelove Seeds
• Urban Farmer (ufseeds.com)
• Villagers
• Victory Seeds

Blog Posts:
• https://www.thatbloomingarden.com/2014/09/cherokee-purple-tomato-a-chefs-favourite-how-to-save-seeds/
• http://www.thejoyblog.net/2018/11/how-to-grow-cherokee-purple-tomatoes.html

Offsite threads:
• https://www.houzz.com/discussions/2236750/horrible-tomatoe-cherokee-purple
• https://www.houzz.com/discussions/2795450/cherokee-purple-tomatoes
• https://www.houzz.com/discussions/2795619/cherokee-purple-rocks (praise)
• https://www.tomatojunction.com/viewtopic.php?f=98&t=1213&p=21438 (cherry variants)
• http://www.tomatoville.com/showthread.php?t=8249 (origin/history)

Offsite forum search results:
• Google: boards.net
• Google: Dave's Garden
• Google: freeforums.net
• Google: Gardenweb
• Google: proboards.com
• Google: Tomatoville

Recipes:
• Save the Flavors – Cherokee Purple Tomato and Vidalia Onion Tart, by Gwen Pratesi

Related, and possibly related, tomato breeds:
• Cherokee Carbon F1
• Cherokee Chocolate
• Cherokee Green
• Cherokee Green Pear
• Cherokee Lime
• Cherokee Lime Stripes
• Cherokee Purple Potato Leaf
• Cherokee Red
• Cherokee Tiger Black
• Cherokee Tiger Black Dwarf
• Cherokee Tiger Black Pear
• Cherokee Tiger Large
• Dora
• Faelan's First Snow (a variegated Cherokee Purple)
• Gary'O Sena
• Golden Cherokee
• Indian Stripe / Indian Zebra
• Indian Stripe Potato Leaf (ISPL)
• Large Barred Boar
• Liz Birt
• Purple Haze
• Spudakee
• Vorlon

*****

This is often considered the best-tasting tomato, although it has a lot more competition for the title than it once did. Some growers report it being early, and some report it being prolific—but neither always seems to be the case for everyone.

I got some Cherokee Purple tomato seeds from Wintersown.org in the fall of 2014, and for the 2015 season, I started a couple plants indoors under lights and in a windowsill. They seemed to come with some disease, which in retrospect might have been Pythium or another stem disease, although it didn't kill them. I transplanted them in poor conditions. One of the plants got at least one extremely late, and probably unripe fruit by the end of the season. I didn't get to taste it, as I lost track of it in the harvest or something.

Anyway, I plan to try it again some year, but I haven't as of yet. I have grown Indian Zebra (AKA Indian Stripe), and Cherokee Green Pear. I'm growing Cherokee Yellow Red Pear, and Cherokee Yellow Perfection Peach, this year (2020), neither of which are stable, yet, I imagine; I was growing Cherokee Yellow Red, too, but it froze in the unheated greenhouse, I believe.

The content of this particular post is available under the following license: GNU Free Documentation License 1.2.

heirloom_tomato

Girl Girl's Weird Thing tomato

Abbreviation: GGWT

Origin:
• Sport of Green Zebra discovered by a dog named Girl Girl, for whom the tomato is named; Girl Girl brought the tomato to her owner
• Introduced by Jessica Hughes, Canada (who is known as jessleigh of San Martin, California, on Tomatoville), in 2012 (the source for the introduction year is gixxerific of the Helpful Gardener forums, mentioned on 20 May 2013).
• Introducer reference 1
• Introducer reference 2
• Introducer reference 3

Offsite articles:
• Dave's Garden
• Plants with Stories

Offsite threads:
• https://www.gardenweb.com/discussions/4870865/girl-girls-weird-thing
• https://notjusttomatoes.proboards.com/thread/5261/girls-girl-weird-thing-tomato
• http://www.tomatoville.com/showthread.php?t=35345

Offsite forum search results:
• Google: Gardenweb
• Google: Helpful Gardener
• Google: proboards.com
• Google: Tomatoville

Availability:
• A number of vendors offer it, now (June 2020).
• It should be easy to get seeds if you're a member of Tomatoville and/or TomatoJunction.

*****

I grew Girl Girl's Weird Thing in 2016. It grew nice-sized tomatoes and was more prolific and early than the average tomato that year. The tomatoes looked nice, but the color was slightly different and they lacked taste; so, I think mine was a cross: It's supposed to have good flavor. Whatever the case, I got a cross or mixed up seed from my 2016 saved seeds with similar, but more prolific, results, in 2017; it was supposed to be Missouri Pink Love Apple, which I also grew in 2016 (but it looked and tasted like GGWT had).

If I recall, in 2017, I also grew GGWT from seeds I saved in 2016, but it was crowded and shaded; it didn't produce.

I plan to grow it again from another seed source in 2021.

There was an old thread on Gardenweb about this, where Jessica Hughes posted, I believe, but I can't seem to find it, yet. I think they were discussing what to name the tomato.

heirloom_tomato

Offsite articles:
• Dave's Garden
• Tatiana's TOMATObase

Vendors:
• Marianna's Heirloom Seeds
• Prairie Garden Seeds
• Reimer Seeds
• TomatoFest
• Uncle Waynes Tomatoes, Inc

Offsite threads:
• https://notjusttomatoes.proboards.com/thread/5377/aunt-rubys-yellow-cherry-tomato
• https://www.tomatojunction.com/viewtopic.php?f=98&t=1210

Offsite semi-related threads:
• http://www.tomatoville.com/showthread.php?t=43762

Offsite forum search results:
• Google: Dave's Garden
• Google: proboards.com
• Google: Tomatoville

*****

This sounds excellent! Haven't tried it, but it's on my wantlist, now.

heirloom_tomato