Mmmm... Tomatos...

Last year, I decided to get 3 tomato plants. Dearest likes tomatos and I wanted to get a few plants for her salads. I had never really thought much of tomatos, but that was mainly because I never had a good tomato. We never grew tomatos when I grew up, because mom was the only one that would eat them. Consequently, the only tomatos that I ever tried to eat were those flavorless store-bought tomatos.

Our 3 tomato plants last year included a locally grown large brandywine that we bought at the co-op and 2 cherry tomato plants. The cherry tomatos didn't have much flavor, but the brandywine was fantastic. The 3 tomato plants provided us with plenty of fresh tomatos, but generally didn't produce enough tomatos for canning.

In order to actually get enough for canning, I would bought local produce from people in Grainger County. Those were also really good tomatos. One of the local fruit stand had some Cherokee Purples. After getting up enough courage to try one of those black looking tomatos, I was shocked about the flavor.

Over the winter, I started researching the Cherokee Purple and other types of heirloom tomatos.

This year I have gone a little crazy with tomatos. I started a significant number of cherokee purples in the basement, and I also started 3 seeds from the brandywine that we had last year. I am pretty excited about getting more of them. I also bought seeds from Seed Savers, Seeds of Change, and bought some other organic seeds around town.

So far, I have planted:

• 1 Yellow Pear
• 1 Black Cherry
• 1 Gold Metal
• 1 Black Krim
• 1 Sudduth's Strain Brandywine
• 1 German Queen
• 2 Mexico Midgets
• 3 Mortgage Lifters
• 4 Mr. Stripey
• 4 Celebrity
• 6 Brandywine
• 10 Cherokee Purples

Additionally, I have about 10 more Cherokee Purples in the basement under the grow lights and a few suckers from the above planted tomatos. I'm pretty sure that I am going to have all of the tomatos that I want to eat and more than enough for canning.