My daughter Maya came running in the house at full speed yelling, "Mom, look at this cherry tomato!!!" Her job all summer has been to collect the tomatoes. So far, we have only really had success with the cherry tomatoes, the yellow pear tomatoes, and our purple tomatoes. The cherry tomatoes are right next to the Brandywine Tomatoes, and somehow she mistook this large Brandywine tomato for an itty bitty cherry tomato.
The flavor on this baby was AMAZING!!! I went out there to look at the Brandywine plants and we have a ton of green ones. If the cold weather holds off for a week or two longer, we will have a whole bunch of them. Pray for good weather for me! These tomatoes are heavenly!
We will be saving the seeds from these heirloom tomatoes to plant for next year, I think I'm going to have to plant a week or two earlier to ensure we get all the fruit before it freezes.
6 comments:
Marisa, I had the same issues with Brandywines this year. I got only one from my plant during the whole summer, and I started mine indoors very early. I did some research on them, and found that they can be picky with very hot dry weather. (like ours.) I started giving them regular mists with the sprayer and hand pollenated a bunch (very easy to do by the way.) and now just got two more off the plant, and have another 8-10 on the vine. They are Very good though aren't they? Definitely worth another try next year.
Good luck with yours, hopefully this cold spell doesn't do us in.
Paul Gardener (P~)
Hi Marisa,
Are Brandy Wine Tomatoes a US Heritage Variety they sound lovely.
Liz NZ
We had two frosty nights already here. Hopefully you can dodge them until your green ones ripen, otherwise you'll have to break out the old bed sheets and make tents in the garden. :-)
Jennifer
Mad Bush Farm Crew, this is the info that Seed Savers Exchange gives on Brandywines.
Brandywine first appeared in the 1889 catalog of Johnson & Stokes of Philadelphia and by 1902 was also offered by four additional seed companies, but soon disappeared from all commercial catalogs. Our best selling tomato and one of the best tasting tomatoes available to gardeners today. The seed of this strain was obtained by tomato collector Ben Quisenberry of Big Tomato Gardens in 1980 from Dorris Sudduth Hill whose family grew them for 80 years. Large pink beefsteak fruits to 2 pounds. Incredibly rich, delightfully intense tomato flavor. Indeterminate, 90 days from transplant.
Paul, it is nice to know I'm not the only one with a problem with my Brandy's. I never got out and hand pollinated this year, I was just too lazy. I normally use a paintbrush, what do you use to pollinate?
The tomatoes from my brandywine plants are as big as my outstretched hands! They are absolutely delicious. Paul, thanks for your info. I too saw that my plants balked at long, hot dry weather. Come September, they were flourishing. My silly plants have dozens of new blossoms now. But sadly cold comes in too soon.
The thing I like most about the Brandywines is the texture. There are very few seeds and the flesh is firm, kind of like the texture of a ripe pear. We put some on a pizza margherita and it was awesome.
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