by Leslie Cox; Saturday, August 16, 2014

In one word…wow!

Last spring I sowed ten different tomato varieties. John loves his tomatoes and we always tuck in a half dozen or so plants of his very favourites…namely ‘Gardener’s Delight’ and Early Girl’…into our greenhouse. And for good measure, we also planted three or four seedlings of ‘Sweet Million’, ‘Harry’s Roma’ (there is a story on this one for another day) and an unknown variety. A friend gave us some seeds claiming it was a “Mennonite Heritage”…and the name has stuck for the very necessary purposes of labelling. At least until we see what the fruits looked like and can make a possible identification.

 

The rest of the varieties I started…’Black Cherry’, ‘Gold Nugget’, ‘Yellow Pear’, ‘Brandywine’, ‘Silvery Fir Tree’ and ‘Sophie’s Choice’ have all been planted in large pots and dot the driveway, as well as here and there in the front garden. Most of these are determinate varieties and do quite well in pots. ‘Brandywine’ is an experiment to see how it would do in a pot. Depending on the final results, it may well suit growing in our school gardens next season.

(More on all of these tomato varieties in future blog postings.)

But, while helping at the Comox Valley Horticultural Society’s Annual Plant Sale in April, I spotted some ‘Snowhite’ amongst the tomato seedling donations. I bought two on impulse because I am a sucker for all Walt Disney movies. Afterwards, I wondered where I was going to put them. 

Well, both plants wound up in a large pot in the front garden too, although it is an indeterminate one. I thought if worse came to worse, I could snip the growth tip if they were getting too rampant.

Well…picked the first pale yellow ‘Snowhite’ fruits on August 4th. (Some references note it as ‘Snow White’.) Naturally, we each tried one as soon as they were weighed.

Talk about juicy!! John squirted tomato pulp quite a distance. Forewarned, I made sure I put the whole tomato in my mouth before biting down.

Oh, so delicious! Sweet. Tomatoey. Nothing like any other yellow-coloured tomatoes I have grown to date. John, who does not really like yellow tomatoes, was really impressed.

I am definitely growing these ones again next year. And more than just two plants!