Bi-Colored tomatoes, come in an amazing kaleidoscope of colors: red tomatoes with yellow stripes, red tomatoes with orange or green stripes, black tomatoes with orange stripes, green tomatoes with yellow stripes and many more intoxicatingly wonderful combinations of color. A rainbow of experiences for growing in your garden.
Generally speaking, most Bi-Colored tomatoes I’ve found to be sweeter flavored tomato varieties. With the varieties of Bi-Colored tomatoes offered, I’m sure there will be a few that will become some of your favorites. You will find that some of the striping is different from tomato variety to tomato variety. (For example, the tightly defined striping of the Vintage Wine versus the wide muted striping and mottling of the Hillbilly.) Many of these varieties I grow every year because I love the distinctiveness of their flavors and because they are such tomato showpieces.
“Black” tomatoes are fast becoming the new “red” tomato. “Black” tomatoes are not really black. Black tomatoes covers a range of dark colors (deep purple, dusky deep brown, smoky dark mahogany color with dark green shoulders, blueish-brown). The depth and darker range of colors seems to be encouraged by a higher acid and mineral content in the soil or higher temperatures.
Black tomatoes have become very popular. The black tomatoes are native to Southern Ukraine during the early 19th century. They originally existed in only a small region on the Crimean Peninsula. Soon they were showing up as new varieties in many all shapes and sizes began to appear throughout the territories of the former Soviet Union. Then they began turning up in the former Yugoslavia, Germany, and the United States.
Blue tomatoes, sometimes referred to as purple tomatoes, are tomatoes that have been bred to produce high levels of anthocyanins, a class of pigments responsible for the blue and purple colors of many fruits, including blueberries, blackberries and chokeberries.
Difference from black cultivars:
Many other tomato cultivars have names indicative of their dark color, such as Black Krim and Cherokee purple. These colors come from an altogether different process, whereby the chlorophyll is not efficiently degraded resulting in the accumulation of the pigment pheophytin in the fruit. This pigment combined with other carotenoids in the fruit, including beta-Carotene and lycopene, produces a brown or black color.
All Tomatoes were originally developed from a cherry (currant) tomato from South America. I’m among those tomato lovers who love the smaller-fruited cherry tomato varieties for their intense burst of flavor… so wonderfully condensed. And what a range of flavors… from mouth-puckering tart to candy-sweet, fruit-like flavors.
All of these cherry tomatoes have pronounced, wonderful flavors…all slightly different from the other…any will leave you pleased.
I assembled for you here a selection of different colors and different shapes that are sure to evoke delightful compliments when displayed by themselves in a bowl for snacking, added to salads or into dishes you create with these cherry tomatoes as garnish, or a main ingredient.
Gardeners with limited growing space have many choices when selecting tomatoes for their home garden. Dwarf tomato varieties are particularly well suited for growing in containers, including hanging baskets. Growing time to maturity typically is quick, although indeterminate dwarf varieties can produce tomatoes throughout the summer season. Dwarf tomato plants grow to maximum heights of 2 to 3 feet, and develop fruit in an array of sizes, shapes and colors.
If you want to grow record-breaking big tomatoes, follow the lead of Gordon Graham. He held the Guinness World Record title for the heaviest tomato—a 7-pound 12-ounce whopper for almost 30 years.. This winning tomato came from a ‘Delicious’ vine, so that’s obviously a variety to keep in mind. But there are lots of others that are up to the challenge.
We have put together a nice collection of Giant tomatoes that are all capable of 2 or more pounds.
Don’t be afraid of the green tomatoes that are supposed to stay green when ripe because they are SWEET. Yes sweet, not the bitter green of every unripe tomato.
Many people ask me, “Well, how do I tell when a green tomato is ripe?” “Feel ’em,” I reply. “If they are soft enough to feel moisture beneath the flesh, it’s ripe” But with some experience, you can generally tell by looking at the fruit.
Aunt Ruby’s German Green tomato, Grandma Oliver’s green tomato, and Charlie’s Green tomato have been favorites of mine for a long time. Our organic green tomato plants should be given a place in your garden if only just one variety.
Simply put, orange tomatoes are tomatoes which are orange, rather than the more conventional red. When people talk about orange tomatoes, they are either referring to certain heirloom tomato varieties which are orange in color, or to a specially bred tomato varietal which has very high amounts of beta-carotene. In either case, the tomato might look a bit weird and certainly distinctive, with a bright orange exterior and an orange interior. However, orange tomatoes taste just like regular tomatoes, although they will of course produce orange ketchup, tomato sauce, and juice blends.
This is the golden age of tomatoes. Never have gardeners had more choices, from heirlooms to hybrids, huge beefsteaks to the tiniest, sweetest cherry tomatoes. True tomato junkies, though, are embracing the type celebrated for making the thickest, heartiest sauce: using the paste tomato.
Making delicious, hearty tomato sauce is an art form. Though you could use any tomato, Roma and other paste tomatoes—with meaty texture with little to no seeds—are said to develop the best flavor when cooked down into a delicious sauce.
Pink tomatoes range in color from light pink to dark pink almost to the point of appearing red. Tomatopedia carries many varieties of organic, pink tomato plants. They come in all shapes and sizes and sweetness levels. I’ve found that in recent years produce markets seem to prefer the pink tomatoes to many of the well-established and great tasting red tomatoes because their customers seem to identify pink with the heirloom tomatoes they seek and shy away from the red tomatoes that for so long did not carry the better flavor.
There are many pink tomato varieties that are historically valued for their big, old-fashioned tomatoey flavors including: 1884 heirloom tomato, Anna Russian, Tidwell German, Brandywine, German Johnson, Bull’s Heart tomato, Mrs. Houseworth and Radiator Charlie’s Mortgage Lifter tomato.
Fashion designer Bill Blass once said, “Red is the ultimate cure for sadness.” Well, bite into a perfectly ripe, red, home-grown, heirloom tomato and you have just lifted your spirits as well as your taste awareness.into sublime.
Remember those red, round, no taste, tennis ball tough red tomatoes that have plagued the supermarkets until the heirloom tomatoes were rediscovered. They have been fast replaced in many better restaurants and produce markets with flavorful tomatoes of all colors, including our old friend RED. With all the interest in other colored heirloom tomatoes these days…red tomatoes are still the overall favorite. We offer what may be the largest selection of red heirloom tomatoes and open-pollinated red tomatoes of any supplier of red tomato plants. And we have selected for you our biggest flavored red tomatoes from around the world.
Striped heirlooms (sometimes called marbled), are beautiful and they tend to have a rich, juicy, super-sweet flavor that is low in acid. Striped German — almost candy-like flavor. Sometimes a soft tomato. Beautiful.
Big Rainbow — considered one of the prettiest and most unique heirloom tomatoes. This meaty beefsteak tomato is known for its sweet and flavorful taste. The golden orange color with artful swirls of red and yellow are seen throughout the tomato
Gold Medal — popular for its appealing sweet taste and marbled beauty, originating from the Black Forest region of Germany. Flavor Profile: rich, juicy, super sweet flavor that is low in acid.
Pineapple- Orange and red on the outside, and yellow with blushes of red on the inside. Very sweet, low acidity and nice flavor.
No matter what flavor profile you like you are sure to find something in our collection.
This showy heirloom, originally from Ireland, is beautiful enough to hold its own in the flower garden–but you’ll want to enjoy its tasty fruits all season long. Fragrant plants look pretty when trellised, with ornamental clusters of fruits displayed on strong trusses against attractive variegated foliage. Only the plant is variegated not the fruit.
White tomatoes are not really white.more like a light cream colored tomato to a very pale ivory or yellow tomato. I’ve grown many white tomatoes and selected to keep growing the ones that are most flavorful. Many other white tomatoes are bland and not interesting enough for us to keep growing.
The white tomato plants we carry in our store produce fruits that are are sweet with just enough acid to keep the sweetness enticing and pleasurable. I’m excited to share the selection of white tomato plants we consider to be the best tasting, including: Great White, Halfmoon China , Potato Leaf White tomato plants, White Beauty, White, Dr. Carolyn cherry tomato plants, and White Queen.
There’s Gold in them thar hills.and it’s in your garden.
Yellow Tomatoes come in a fascinating and beautiful range of colors (pale cream yellow, dusky yellow, bright orange, pastel to brilliant gold). Yellow-Orange-Gold tomatoes are currently HOT in restaurants with chefs’ culinary creations and in the marketplace.
We are proud to grow for our tomato gardening friends many varieties of organic yellow tomato plants, Including some of my favorites; 1884 Yellow Pink Heart heirloom tomato, Yellow Ruffled, Huge Lemon Oxheart heirloom tomato, Amish Gold, Homer Fike’s Yellow Oxheart (which looks more gold than yellow), Azoychka (a Russian heirloom tomato) , Flamme, Dixie Golden Giant heirloom tomato.