Viewing comments posted by Newyorkrita

Bought seedlings of Millionaire eggplant this spring from Territorial seed. Nice little plants that grew quickly. The plants were quite productive and early to bloom and set fruit. It is a purple-fruited variety that makes fruits of the perfect size to pick and slice for grilling.

I wanted to try a white eggplant again this year, so I decided to try Casper. I bought mine as a transplant, so the plant grew well and had an early start. Truly, I can't taste any difference between the purple eggplant and the white variety. It made eggplants. I picked them and ate them. What else can I say?

Beaverlodge Slicer is part of the Beaverlodge series bred for growing and setting fruit in cool climates. I grew both Beaverlodge Slicer and Beaverlodge Plum this season. I prefer the Beaverlodge Slicer.

The fruit on the Beaverlodge Slicer was larger and it tasted better to me. It was extra early and was not bothered by a cool wet spring. I had tomatoes in mid-June, which is unheard of for my garden.

Beaverlodge Plum is part of the Beaverlodge series bred for cool short-season climates. They sure did set fruit early and never minded the cool early spring weather, but the fruit was way too small and it tended to crack around the stem section, making the tomatoes look very unappealing. The determinate plants died out really early here, and the fruit was really bland. I'm not planning to grow them again next year.

Cuore Di Bue is an oxheart variety, the first oxheart that I have ever grown in my garden. The plant grows well and I have never noticed any of the wispy, wimpy foliage that oxhearts are reported to have. The tomatoes themselves are of a medium size with a peculiar shape. Slightly plum shaped, they are bottom heavy with ribbing around the stem portion. It is a very meaty tomato with not much juice, but a pleasant taste. Would be fabulous for cooking, but I just ate mine fresh like any other tomato in my garden.

Japanese Black Trifele is a potato-leaf variety that set fruits really early in my garden. The fruit is a nice size for salads, not really large. The fruit is pear-shaped, with rich deep blood-red coloring throughout and green streaking around and near the stem. It's a unique-looking tomato with a rich and complex black-tomato taste.

So apparently there are regular-leafed and potato-leafed varieties of Hillbilly. I am growing the regular-leafed variety, which I found as a seedling at a local nursery. Caused me some confusion as to whether I really had Hillbilly after I first got my plant.

Now the plant is producing those lovely gold-streaked and very tasty fruits, and plenty of them. Of the larger yellow type slicers I have tried this year, this one is by far my favorite. I do plan to grow Hillbilly again next season.

According to Territorial Seed, which is where I got my plant, Grandma's Pick has heirloom flavor with hybrid production. Ha, can't prove it by me. I have gotten very few fruits, which I usually find typical on heirloom varieties I may try in my garden. I thought the flavor was good, but not exceptional, so with the lack of production, I will not be trying to grow Grandma's Pick again.

I have wanted to try Momotaro for a few years as I have always read so much praise about this variety from people growing it. Most of them are down south. My plant has not done much and has only given me very few, not-so-big tomatoes. They did taste great, though. I think I need to try to grow Momotaro again, to give it another chance.

I have one plant of the variety 'Fantastic' this year. I actually bought the plant by mistake as I was not intending to try this variety. But I had it, so I did plant it, and I was pleasantly surprised.

I grew one called Super Fantastic some years back, which had no flavor, so I expected to be disappointed in Fantastic. Got very pleasantly surprised as the taste was very good and the tomatoes were a nice size. They did not split or crack even in the extra-rainy weather.

Oregon Spring is an early season variety that is supposed to set and ripen under really cool conditions for a tomato. Must work, as I did get early tomatoes even setting when the weather was much, much cooler than I would normally get fruit to set. So, for that reason, Oregon Spring was a complete success. I just could not get much excited about the taste, nothing memorable about it.

Glacier is one of those extra early varieties for early fruit production. Indeed, it did turn out to be especially and surprisingly early. I had ripe fruits in mid-June. That is simply unheard of and about a month earlier than I normally might get a ripe tomato or two, and the flavor was not bad for such an early tomato.

Unfortunately, the Glacier fruit was hardly much larger than a cherry tomato.

I decided to try growing Zebra Cherry for the first time this year. It will not be returning next season as I find it a complete disappointment. In spite of the really thick skin that makes it unpleasant to eat, Zebra Cherry splits really easily, and I usually could not get them ripe to pick before they split. It's a real shame, as they are pretty tomatoes, green with red striping.

Wild Boar Farms out in California has a bunch of Berkeley Tie-Dye varieties, including Berkeley Tie-Dye, Pink Berkeley Tie-Dye, and Berkeley Tie-Dye Heart. I am growing Berkeley Tie-Dye and Pink Berkeley Tie-Dye side by side this year.

Pink Berkeley Tie-Dye is a striking tomato of a deep red coloring with luminous green striping. It's a beautiful beefsteak-type tomato with excellent, excellent rich complex taste.

I like Pink Berkeley Tie-Dye much, much more than Berkeley Tie-Dye. better. In fact, I don't want to grow Berkeley Tie-Dye again, but I would love to bring back Pink Berkeley Tie-Dye to grow again next year. The combo of taste and striking looks can't be beat.

Wild Boar Farms in California has a bunch of Berkeley Tie-Dye varieties, including Berkeley Tie-Dye, Pink Berkeley Tie-Dye, and Berkeley Tie-Dye Heart. The Berkeley Tie-Dye is a green-colored tomato with red and yellow stripes. Inside, it looks mostly green to me, with some infusions of red veining. I found Berkeley Tie-Dye to be a most unusual looking tomato, but in my garden the fruits were so bumpy and lumpy and non-uniform in growth that I didn't know what to make of them. I got poor production, but with only one plant that might not be a fair judgment.

Blue Beauty is another of Wild Boar Farms' tomato introductions. Blue Beauty is a deep pink beefsteak, but what makes it stand out is the dark-blue, almost black coloring at the tops near the stems. It appears when the tomatoes are still very green and stays as the tomatoes ripen to their deep pink, ready-to-eat color.

I have found them to be a medium-size beefsteak with nice productivity. The tomatoes have a nice beefsteak flavor. Flavor plus the blue coloring make these tomatoes very interesting, so I try to include at least one in a bag each time I give tomatoes to my friends. Everyone comments on the unusual color combination and the good taste.

Sweet Carneros Pink is from the West Coast. It's one of the Wild Boar Farms introductions. Smaller tomatoes, but the plant sets lots and lots of fruit. I wish I could describe the flavor, but all I can say is that they are tasty. I eat them as soon as they are picked. These never sit around on the counter. Sweet Carneros Pink is a pink tomato with golden stripes. Makes it a pretty fruit as well as great tasting. I only wish they were bigger.

AAA Sweet Solano is one of the introductions from Wild Boar Farms in California.

I really thought I would love this one because the ripe fruits look very tasty. They are a deep yellow, almost golden color. The tomatoes start out yellow with green stripes and turn into golden orange tomatoes.

Many of them cracked for me, but we have had an excessive amount of rain this season. What really turned me off was that I just did not like the taste of these. Very difficult for me to describe the hint of aftertaste I get. On the Wild Boar Farms description, they state that it has a hint of tropical fruit. I think the taste is odd, and what I am tasting does not belong in the flavor of a tomato.

Blue Gold is another of the Wild Boar Farms introductions. What makes it unique and different, in my opinion, is the unusual coloring. It is black at the top near the stem. Well, it is actually a very deep blue color that appears black. The rest of the tomato and the interior are yellow or yellow-gold colored.

On the Wild Boar website, they state that this one has a great hang time and shelf life. I wouldn't know about that, as my tomatoes around here get picked as soon as they are ready and are quickly eaten up or passed on to friends.

Solar Flare is an introduction from Wild Boar Farms in California. The red with orange stripes, beefsteak-type tomatoes are striking to look at and have really wow-factor old-time flavor. One of my favorites of the Wild Boar Farms tomatoes I have tried, maybe my top favorite for taste. Nice-sized beefsteaks that are not too big but just the right size for slicing on sandwiches.