by Leslie Cox; Wednesday, August 20,  2014

The other day I wrote about my new favourite tomato…’Snow White’. Wonderful taste for a yellow tomato! Like I said in my last blog entry…even John is super impressed with this variety of yellow cherry tomato.

Today’s blog I want to mention another new-to-us variety we are growing this year…’Oxheart’. The seedling was a gift from friends when we visited their garden last spring.

As all available space for tomato plants was already commandeered, I had to pot up ‘Oxheart’ into a five gallon pot destined for the driveway. It is an indeterminate variety so I tucked it up to the front corner of the woodshed roof and John ran some twine down from a swag hook for support for the twin leader stems.

Growth has been on a par with all my other tomato plants on the driveway and I just harvested the first two fruits. And while I have yet to taste one yet (picked them a bit on the green side)…they certainly look beautiful! (Taste test is scheduled for tonight’s dinner plate.)

The skin on the ‘Oxheart’ has a distinct pink colour to it and there are green streaks on its shoulders. Quite unique. Very beautiful. And the overall shape is rather heart-like…as you may have guessed from its name.

I have discovered there are several “oxheart”-type tomatoes from different parts of the globe. Hungary, Russia…even Japan. Am not sure which one we have as our friends got the original seeds from their friend. And so it goes with the sharing of seeds.

But I hazard a guess our particular plant may be the one called ‘Livingston’s Giant Oxheart’. Our fruits certainly look similar to the photos I have seen of this cultivar. The size is about right. The colour is right. We will just have to see if the inside is more flesh than seeds and the taste is how the references describe it…meaty and juicy.

Will keep you posted….