Quick facts
- Amish heirloom
- Excellent for sauce making
- Widely adapted
Solanum lycopersicum
75-85 days, indeterminate. Large, blocky, acorn-shaped fruit with limited juices and seeds for cooking down, canning and sauce making. One of the largest "paste" tomatoes, meaty and coreless fruit range from 6-12 oz and are probably better suited for sauce than paste. Don't be afraid to use it as a slicing tomato as well as it is quite sweet. Multitalented, it has a perfect tomatoey acid and sugar balance. Bears deep red fruit on indeterminate vines to keep you in paste tomatoes all season long. Popular and widely grown, its adapted to a range of soil and climatic conditions.
Foliage is sparse, so sunburn and cracking can be a problem in hot, dry conditions. Late-season bearing.
A bit of its story:
1870s Heirloom originally from Medford, Wisconsin, the oldest Amish community in the state. Acquired from the Amish in Lancaster Co., PA by Tom Hauch of Heirloom Seeds. Later offered by Thane Earle in the Seed Savers Exchange yearbook of 1987.
How to Grow it:
|
Germ Temp
|
Indoor Start
|
Germ Days
|
Frost Tolerant
|
Sun
|
Vine Type
|
Seed Depth
|
Plant/Row Spacing
|
|
65-85
|
4-6 w.
|
6-9 d.
|
No
|
Full
|
Indet.
|
1/8”
|
24”/36”
|
|
Start seeds indoors 4-6 weeks before average last frost date. Plant seeds in sterile potting soil and provide 7-10 hours of direct light each day. Thin to the strongest plant per pot. Transplant 24"-36" apart in full sun, benefits from trellising. Harvest tomatoes at full red. Suitable for container gardens.
Seed specs: Packet size- 30 min
Slow Food ARK OF TASTE Variety:
For it's rich history and cultural significance, this tomato has been chosen to board the Slow Food Ark of Taste. The Slow Food Ark of Taste is where "culinary heritage meets biodiversity." Varieties placed on the "ark" are those whose rich history and cultural significance is well documented, yet whose existence is threatened simply by the lack of people growing and perpetuating it. Varieties of crops, like species of plants and animals, can (and do) go extinct from lack of habitat and unfavorable conditions. These varieties deserve preservation not just because they each have a great story, but because the futures of our evolving food crops depend on a rich well of genetic diversity with which they can continually adapt, and be adapted by plant breeders, to thrive in changing conditions. In the case of our food crops, the unfavorable conditions leading to a decrease in diversity are many, but one we can immediately address is the decrease in the number of people growing these crops and saving these seeds.
A small kitchen garden really can change the world!
Check out our Slow Food Ark of Taste Package, which includes this tomato.
|
|
