Snake in the Grass!
We found this fine, cucumber specimen at a farmer’s market. Long and twisty, it will find good company with peppers and tomatoes in a spicy gazpacho!
Purple Calabash – MUTANT!!!
It could very well be that our good friend and mentor James Worley is right. This may be a normal Purple Calabash tomato. No matter! Visually, we love the wild shapes and folds. Slicing this baby up is another matter entirely. We have not quite figured that out.
Purple Calabash MUTANT
We love the flutes of Purple Calabash. Furthermore, the plant is proving to be magnificent mutant machine. This corrugated creature has practically folded up on himself. Lovely!
Japanese Black Trifele MUTANT
Cyrano de Tomato It’s a rock! A peak! A cape! No, it is a protuberance that makes these tomatoes marvelous mutants. We found these two charmers on our fertile Japanese Black Trifele plant.
Abraham Lincoln MUTANT!
We found this double-lobed wonder and were thrilled. Our first little mutant of the season. Hooray!
Black Krim Mutant Wants You!
This Saturday, you are cordially invited to attend the Third Annual KCTT Tomato Tasting. This year we are expecting hundreds of varieties in all shapes, sizes and colors. In past years we’ve found that it is the best way to determine what heirloom varieties thrive here in the Kansas City area. James Worley will be […]
Who Planted the Magic Beans?
As any frequent visitor to TomatoTown knows, we love mutants! Farmer T has been encouraging this unusual volunteer with great care. The plant appears to be several tomato vines that have loosely fused together. While it is not likely that it will turn into a giant tomato stalk leading to a magic land in the […]
Intruder Alert!
The Russian Black Krim is a favorite here at Tomato Town. Since it is both an early producer and relatively prolific, we can count on several tasty tomatoes from Black Krim every day. Black Krim is also highly prone to catfacing, a trait we regard with the highest affection. Here is one of our latest […]
Big Boy
Nestled in among the long, thin pepper-shaped Opalkas, Farmer T discovered this monster Opalka. Unlike his slender brothers, this one was round and substantial. Alas, he ripened too late for the tomato sauce we made over the weekend. Instead, he lounges on the kitchen table intimidating the other Opalkas with his girth.
The Imperfect Tomato
We love mutants, and get excited every time we find one in Tomato Town. As it turns out, some of the mutations have names. Thanks to Tomato Man James Worley for introducing the term ‘catfacing’ to us in the comments. Catfacing is caused by blossoms being exposed to cold temperatures about two weeks before they […]
Mutants – Intruder Alert!
Occasionally we find a few oddities among our tomatoes. Here is a Black Krim with a protrusion. Farmer T says, “Sometimes a tomato is just a tomato.”