Tomatoes

(Lycopersicon esculentum)

The wild ancestors of the tomato originated in the highland regions of western South America. It served as an important crop for Central and South Americans for thousands of years. After the Spanish arrived in the region the tomato was brought back to Europe as well as Spain’s other colonies around the world. When grown in Spain it thrived in the warm Mediterranean climate and it quickly became one of the most important vegetables there. In Northern Europe however people needed some convincing as to its edibility. The English assumed the fruit to be poisonous due to it’s resemblance to the deadly nightshade plant. Its case was probably not helped when the queen’s chefs prepared a dish featuring this new Spanish vegetable. They didn’t know which part of the plant they were supposed to cook and they ended up feeding the queen the leaves.

Today the tomato is the most popular home garden vegetable in North America. It’s no wonder as to why when you compare a freshly picked, still warm from the sun Brandywine to most tomatoes available in stores. Because the ripe fruit won’t ship long distances, most supermarket tomatoes are picked green, shipped hundreds or thousand of kms to the store and then artificially ripened with ethylene gas. Not a process very conducive to flavour.

Tomatoes should be started indoors 6 to 10 weeks before planting out after the soil has warmed in June. No special equipment is needed to start the seeds, just a tray near a sunny window will do. Plant in fertile soil and supply plenty of water. All of our varieties are Indeterminates, meaning they will require staking. Side shoots should be pinched off as the plants grow to keep them to a single stalk. A few of our varieties grew to 8 feet last year. Most tomato varieties have self-fertile flowers and seldom cross which makes seed saving easy.

(Listed are the days that each variety took to mature in our garden in 2008. They tend to differ from figures quoted by other sources due to different conditions and micro-climates)

Packets cost $3.00 each and contain approx. 40 seeds unless otherwise noted

San Marzano - The famous Italian sauce tomato. It’s considered by many connoisseurs to produce the finest sauce in the world. The juice from this variety is so thick it that needs very little boiling down to make sauce. You can nearly squeeze a San Marzano directly onto your pasta. In 1770 this variety was brought from Peru to the Kingdom of Naples and planted near the village of San Marzano, near the base of Mount Vesuvius. Indeterminate - 90 days to maturity    Sold Out (try Amish Paste as a substitute)

Gardener’s Delight - A popular red cherry tomato. The flavourful, sweet fruit are produced in long trusses on hugely productive tall vines. Indeterminate - 70 days to maturity

Galina - Huge producer of yellow cherries. Tall plants need support as they can grow over six feet. Potato leaf. Indeterminate - 75 days to maturity  

Brandywine - Large deep pink fruit. One of the best tasting tomatoes. The fruit are almost solid with little juice so they’re perfect for slicing. A potato leaf first introduced in the 1800’s. Indeterminate - 90 days to maturity

Amish Paste - Reliable high yields of large plum shaped tomatoes. Solid flavourful fruit are great for sauce or for fresh eating. Mother Earth News magazine recently rated Amish Paste as one of their top 20 best tasting tomato varieties. Indeterminate – 85 days to maturity

Speckled Roman - Oblong, medium-sized fruit are red with wavy yellow stripping. Discovered by John Swenson from a chance cross in his garden between Antique Roman and Banana Legs tomatoes. Great for sauce and the thin skins make it great for fresh eating too. Indeterminate – 90 days to maturity   Limited Supply, 20 seeds

Wentzell - A large beefsteak. Dense, meaty and awesome for sandwiches. This variety has been grown for generations by the Wentzell family who were the original homesteaders of what is now Windhorse Farm. A potato-leaf which grows to 4 feet. Indeterminate   Limited Supply, 20 seeds

Sicilian Saucer - Huge, flat beefsteak and paste tomato. An heirloom variety passed down in a Sicilian family for generations. Inderminate - 95 days to maturity

Stupice - Extra early-ripening small red tomato. Productive even in cool conditions. A potato leaf variety developed in Czechoslovakia. 2 inch diameter fruits are crack resistant. Indeterminate – 75 days to maturity    

Maria’s - A good paste tomato originally from Hungary. Prone to cracks. Indeterminate - 85 days to maturity

Black Prince - A medium-sized, round, black tomato from Irkutsk, Russia, near Lake Baikal .Rated as one of the best for flavour. Indeterminate – 85 day to maturity

Black Cherry - High yields of dusky brown cherry tomatoes, with sweet, smoky flavour. Indeterminate – 85 days to maturity

Black Plum - An extremely high yielder of crack-resistant, mahogany coloured 3" plum tomatoes. Makes a flavourful dark sauce. Indeterminate - 85 days to maturity

Bali - Three to four foot tall heavily branching plants each produce a few huge clusters of highly ribbed almost “brainlike” fruit. The beautiful fruits are marbled red, yellow and pink. A rare variety from Indonesia. Indeterminate – 90 days to maturity

Mama Leone’s - A large plum variety with few seeds that’s perfect for making sauce. Brought to New York by a family that immigrated from Italy. Indeterminate – 85 days to maturity

Moneymaker - A great all-perpose slicer. Medium-sized, round, red fruit are crack-resistant. Indeterminate - 90 days to maturity

(new) Cabot - This medium sized red slicer was one of my earliest and most productive tomatoes this year, starting to bear in mid-August. I had buckets and buckets from just a short row. Requires no staking. It's local too, developed in the 70's at the Agriculture Canada station in Kentville. Dependably grows where few others will! Determinate

(new) Scotia - Another excellent early red slicer from Kentville. This popular tomato is very similar to Cabot but larger and higher yielding. Determinate   

(new) Crnkovik Yugoslavian - A new favourite! This large red beefsteak produces tons of delicious solid fruit on 3-4 foot vines. Comparable to Brandywine except much higher yielding and earlier. Indeterminate

(new) Carbon - Large, brown-red slicers produced on 4' vines. Flavourful and fairly early. Indeterminate 

(new) King Umberto - Produces masses of small red plum tomatoes on very vigourous 6' vines. Early and prolific. Indeterminate.

(new) Yellow Pear - Small, sweet, 2" fruit are shaped like yellow pears, just as the name implies! A huge producer on 6' tall plants, it will keep bearing heavily up to the first frost. Indeterminate

(new) Principe Borghese - An old Italian heirloom. Huge yields of small grape tomatoes with little juice, perfect for sauce or drying. Plants are 6' tall and so loaded with fruit that staking is really needed! Indeterminate 

(new) Heidi - Another standout variety in 2009. A prolific producer of 5" long dark red plum tomatoes perfect for sauces, canning or eating fresh. Indeterminate   Sold Out

(new) Chadwick’s Cherry - A vigourous producer of large, sweet, plump red cherry tomatoes. Vines grow to 6' and produce long trusses of fruit. Developed by Alan Chadwick, the creator of biointensive gardening and one of the fathers of the modern organic movement. Indeterminate 

(new) Tommy Toe - Huge yields of large red cherries. Tall plants need plenty of support. Indeterminate

(new) Mortgage Lifter - A top quality slicer, producing huge, red, lumpy, and very flavourful fruit. Developed in the 1930s by M.C. "Radiator Charlie" Byles. When his radiator business slumped during the depression he turned to plant breeding. After word spread about this tomato he sold the seedlings for $1.00 a piece, paying off his mortgage in the process.    

(new) Elizabeth - Small, oblong red fruit produced on extremely vigourous vines, easily reaching 6'. 

(new) Cherokee Purple - Another big, dark-fruited slicer. Definitely one of the very best for flavour, it produces sweet, complex dusky purple fruit with green shoulders. Indeterminate

(new) Super Early Latah - This one rivals Stupice as my earliest tomato, I'd have to call it a draw! Small, red, plum shaped fruit are produced heavily on 4' plants. Indeterminate

(new) Absinthe - A green when ripe slicer! Large, solid coloured fruit on on stocky 4' vines. Developed from a cross of Aunt Ruby's German Green and Emerald Evergreen by my friend Alan Bishop of Hip-Gnosis Seed Development out of Indiana. Indeterminate   Limited Supply

(new) Pine/Fog - A stabilized cross of Pineapple and San Fran Fog. The sweet, round, 3" fruit are red skinned and orange fleshed! Plants to 4'. Indeterminate   Limited Supply

(new) Tigerella - An excellent, tangy tomato with orange/yellow stripes over red skin. Productive, tasty and fun. Indeterminate   Limited Supply 

(new) Green Zebra - Introduced in 1985 by master tomato breeder Tom Wagner. Definitely one of the best green tomatoes, fruits are 3-4" across with dark stripes over green skin.

(new) Early Black Brandywine - A black fruited sport of Brandywine. Outstanding flavour and early yields compared to other black slicers. Indeterminate

Tomatillos and Ground Cherries

These Solanaceae family members of the tomatoes definitely deserve more attention. They grow in a similar way to tomatoes, just start them in trays indoors in early Spring and give them lots of sun and heat once they're outside. Profiles from Windhorse: 

(new) Tomatillo (Physalis ixocarpa) (from Windhorse Farm) - Plants produce numerous small, tomato-shaped fruits. Each tomatillo grow within its own wrapper, a papery husk like a Chinese lantern. The fruit has a unique taste ideally suited for salsa verde. We've been growing these gems for years now. They are hard to find for sale in Nova Scotia, even at farmers’ markets. Make sure you grow enough of these to freeze a bunch and have some left over for your friends.   20 seeds

Ground Cherry (Physalis pruinosa) (from Windhorse Farm) - These small, golden, husked fruits are tart and sweet. They are a delightful snack, but if you can save up enough of them they do make delightful salsa. Harvest when the husks have turned dry and brown and the fruit is yellowish.   20 seeds