Tomato Crazy

On Saturday, I took the kids to the local farmer's market.  It looked like rain, but I was surprised at the number of people there.  Even though it's fun to just get out of the house and see some new things, I really wanted to find a few plants.  I've been very pleased with the variety of seedlings available at the market.  I usually have to start my own plants since Wyoming is a tricky climate and not everything offered at the big store will actually grow, but I have been able to find many of the plants I would have liked to grow.  Plus some.  It's fun to be able to try many different varieties in one year.  I usually limit myself to one new variety of plant per year, since I have left over seeds from previous years, but as I tallied in my mind today, I realized I have seven varieties of tomatoes! 

Flowers on the Silvery Fir Tree!

Of course, I spent as much on one or two plants as a seed packet would have cost me, but this way I'm not stuck with 50 seeds of something I don't really like.  I got to pick only the varieties that interest me and if I like them, they are heirloom plants so I'll learn how to save seeds.  Then I can try seven more varieties next year!  Too bad my husband doesn't like tomatoes.  He may not have a choice this year.


I decided I had better make a little journal of all the varieties and how they perform, so I sat right down and scribbled out the names, when I transplanted, where they came from and how big they were when I transplanted.  I figured it wasn't totally fair to compare dates of ripe tomatoes if one plant was 10" and the other only 3" when they were stuck into the ground. 

I like how the camera focused on the little stem hairs instead of the flower.

Even though I'm now in a warmer climate, I'm trying out varieties that are supposed to do well in colder environments or that mature quickly.  Mostly.  I do have two brandy wine plants and I'm excited to see how they turn out.  I picked the cold- tolerant plants because I want to try them to see if they are worth the effort.  I have grown some tomatoes in Wyoming, but they weren't very good to eat.  I'm hoping to figure out which plant is the absolute best tasting/ highest producing/ toughest and then I'll plant one for my mom in Wyo and see how it does.  In any case, we'll hopefully end up with a wide variety of seeds to try out when I move back home.

And speaking of tomatoes, have you seen this website?  Tomatofest.com has 600 varieties of heirloom tomatoes!  I just went through several pages of tomatoes that they suggest for colder areas.  Where have these people been all my life?

My list of tomatoes is as follows:
Early Girl - not heirloom, but they were cheap.  They looked pretty rough at first, but are coming along nicely.
Brandywine - free from IFA and also doing wonderfully.
Tigerella - this one was little, but is coming along.  This is supposed to be very productive and vigorous, plus it has stripes.
Silvery Fir Tree - this one is fast and only grows 2' tall.  I put it in a pot by the driveway.
Bison -   This was a find at the market.  It is supposed to do well in cold, wet climates.  It was very small also, but I have high hopes for this one.
Stupice - My last tomato for the year.  Really.  I picked this one up at the market Saturday.  The lady swears it produces like crazy.
and some cherry tomato that I had old seeds for.  I've never had success with it, but since I had the seeds, I planted them.  It's still teensy tiny. 

Lest you think I am completely obsessed with tomatoes, I'll have you know that I also bought two lemon cucumber starts.  I heard about them from Backyard Farming and hoped to find them at the market.  Saturday was my lucky day.

Next week: sweet peppers!