Today I went to Tomato Fest at the Trout Lake Farmer’s Market to buy my heirloom tomato ‘seeds’ for next year. The vendors sell tomatoes, not tomato seeds in packets, but really,  a tomato is just a delicious and colourful packet filled with of lots and lots of seeds, right? And heirlooms have grown true seed to fruit year after year, so what better way to decide what tomatoes you want in your garden the next year: buy some heirlooms tomatoes, scoop out the seeds, and chow down. If it’s a good tomato – grow more! If it sucks, then just toss the seeds in the compost.
These are the ones I’ll be testing and saving over the next few days to see which will join my most favourite of all heirlooms (some of those favs snuck into the photo even though they came from my garden: Green Zebra, Sweetheart Grape and Siletz). All this for $8.50. Hell yeah!
It seems crazy to BUY more tomatoes when this is the giant bowl I am trying to cope with today from my home garden (this is a really, really big bowl):
Ah, well, I’m sure I’ll find SOMETHING to do with them all….om nom nom nom nom..
A city girl who learned to garden and it changed everything. Author, artist, Master Gardener. Better living through plants.
Clever girl ! Sure is a smart way to select next year’s crop. ;) Hope you enjoy them all.
Nice haul from your garden too !
A very cool way to go tomato seed shopping! The black krim looks very similar in color to the Kumato tomatoes I just posted about today. Maybe I’ll have to grow them both next year so I can do a side by side comparison. Wanna do a seed trade? :)
And green sausage? What a wonderful name for a tomato variety.
Those Tomatoes look lovely! I have Green Zebra and I think it’s ready to be picked, first time I’m trying it. My Marvel Stripe and Brandy Wine is big but still not ripen, the short season here is disappointing! Hopefully it wills stay warm until October since we’re in California.
I get my seed packets that way sometimes too. I saved some Black Prince this year that I got from the farmers market.
I am extremely interested in trying out the black and green varieties of tomatoes next year, and your pictures make me want to buy some seeds right this second!
What kind of flavor do the green sausage tomatoes have? Are they just like a green version of a paste tomato?
I just tried the green sausage today, it’s firm and crunchy like a raw pepper. The flavour I would say was lemony and mild. Black tomatoes are much richer in flavour – less sweet and more intense tomato, with less acid. My favourite tomatoes are pink and orange ones – and of course the Green Zebra, Sweetheart Grape and Siletz.