Perhaps the ugliest tomato in all of creation!

Happens also to be one of the best tasting on the planet! But alas, not only are the fruits ugly, they are also typically very few in numbers per plant. My two BW's for the 2010 season have produced a grand total of just one tomato so far this year! Adding to my sorrows, this bad girl is also slow to mature. Hey! Even the leaves look more like a potato plant than anything else. Talk about having the odds stacked against you! So, why do I bother trying to grow it?

I grow this member of the Nightshade Family as faithfully as I can every year because even just one ripe tomato, sliced on a plate with a little salt and pepper is a small taste of culinary heaven. The true taste is very hard to describe unless you’ve actually eaten one. (That will not happen around my house. I guard each fruit like it was the Holy Grail). No, not really, but I will tell you this. The sensation of eating one of these is one of a burst of sweetness with a slightly scandalous acidic bite. (Think of the best tomato you’ve ever had, multiply that by two and you have a good idea). I could never even think of making a BLT with one! This princess demands center stage!

Adding such a great taste to the mystery that surrounds its origin not to mention the challenge that growing it demands... well, you have a combo that garden purists like myself crave. It’s an addiction thing.

Burpee Seed mentions this variety of tomato as far back as 1886 in their seed catalog. However, there seems no good lineage before that. (The story that this tomato is of Amish origin is apparently a myth as there is no concrete evidence to the fact).

The bottom line; you will almost never find this tomato in a grocery store or even a roadside produce stand. You must take up the challenge, as I did so long ago, and grow your own.