Heirloom Tomato Review

Late August is a time of the year when you can enjoy tomatoes fresh from the garden. This year, I have tried different varieties, all of them open-pollinated, some determinate, some indeterminate. Here is an evaluation of these new-for-me varieties.

The first one to ripen was Galina, a yellow cherry tomato apparently from Siberia. It has a sweet taste and is a good indeterminate producer. Indeterminate means that it continues to produce until frost and does not all ripen all its fruit at the same time (as you can see on the photo). This is a plus for the home gardener. Mine was a rather large "cherry" tomato, which I do not mind. Apparently it also does well in containers.

Scotia was the first full size tomato to ripen. They are slightly more acidic than Galina. I like having at least one variety that is more acidic. They are supposed to mature about 60 days after transplanting, which is fast. I would say mine took longer than that (75 days?). Scotia is supposed to set fruit in cold weather. They are determinate, so the fruits ripen over a couple of weeks, and then the plant dies. They are medium size and well-formed some of them with a green shoulder.

Striped Marvel tomato

I grew two varieties of very large tomatoes. The first one is Marvel Striped. They are sweet, good tasting and enormous. Apparently, each fruit can weigh 2 lb. I was expecting the skin to be striped, but in fact, although it is two colored, it is more the inside that is striped.  They are very attractive and quite tasty, but I am not fond of giant tomatoes as the size is awkward. Some of them were misshapen because of the size. They are indeterminate and best eaten fresh.

Cherokee Purple tomato

The other big one I grew is an heirloom called Cherokee Purple which is also indeterminate. It is not a prolific bearer. I suppose the size of each fruit compensates. They are a very dark red. Like Marvel Striped, I find it quite tasty but do not consider the huge size to be an asset. They look nice sliced on a plate, but are not practical to use in other ways.

Boxcar Willie tomato

Perhaps the best among the new tomatoes I tried this year is Boxcar Willie, a very productive indeterminate variety. The fruits are of a uniform size, none were misshapen and there was no cracking. They are very tasty, slightly acidic. They would work well in tomato sauce or for canning. They are also attractive. It is a variety I will most certainly grow again. They are slightly slower to ripen. Supposed to mature in 80 days, they took longer than Marvel Striped and Cherokee Purple, which are both supposed to mature in 90 days.

Chadwick's tomato

 Finally, another I will grow again is Chadwick's. It is also vigorous and indeterminate. I see that it is described as a cherry tomato, but it is a large cherry tomato. In fact, mine were rather plum size. It is a good thing they are very productive, as a lot of them get eaten in the garden, directly off the vine. They are supposed to be very cold-hardy, so they should remain productive for a long time.

As I said, all of the above are open-pollinated, which means that you can keep the seeds to plant in following years. They are also all disease resistant.