Portuguese Purple tomato
$4.00 – $10.00
(Lycopersicon esculentum)
A large, slicing-type indeterminate tomato with fruits which go from green to tinted with purple and pink, still with a dark greenish base, when ripe. Delicious. I received this tomato from my uncle, Greg Cressman. He gardens in the front yard of his home in Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario, because the back yard is overhung by black walnuts, which tomatoes detest. As he tells the story,
“One day I was working in the garden and a Ford pickup pulled up. A guy got out and said, ‘I see you like tomatoes. Would you like some of my tomatoes?’ They chatted a bit more, and the guy left. He came back the next day with a couple of these tomatoes, and explained how to save seed from them. He said he had been saving seed for some years. He was Portuguese, and I don’t think he lived locally, but I don’t know anything more about him or them. So I called them Portuguese Purple tomatoes.”
There you have it, folks. So begins a new seed story. I always wondered how seed companies come up with the funny bits of information we pass on with our varieties!
Start indoors 7 weeks before last frost. Sow 1/2” deep; harden off for 10 days before transplanting. Prepare hole with manure and ground eggshell in the bottom, covered by a layer of soil. Set bush types 24” apart, vines 18” apart. Train vines up trellises.