Tomatoes selections from 2022

In 2022, being new to the garden scene in Mississippi, we weren't sure which heirlooms would do best in our new beds. So, we grew the household favorite BLT maker--Black Krim-- and trialed a few others.

For salsa and tomato sauce, we grew the San Marzano roma type and Martino's Roma to see which paste type tomato performed better. We also grew the extremely flavorful Rosella. We always grow Cherokee Purple as it is a family favorite--a big thank you to Craig LeHoullier for breeding this tomato into existence. 

Our historical variety, with its long history in Mississippi, was the Livingstone's Gulf State Market from Victory Seeds. This indeterminate tomato, according to Victory Seed's website, "was found by Walter Richards of Crystal Springs, Mississippi in 1917 as a single plant in a field of 'Early Detroit' tomatoes. It was released by D. M. Ferry & Company shortly thereafter in 1921". 

This is one of the most fascinating aspects of tomato breeding--that this variety was successfully cultivated from one plant in a field of who knows how many tomato plants. That the farmer noticed something special about this one plant and had the gumption to try to breed it into a entirely new variety. One thing that appealed to us was the claim that it was more resistant to early blight, a real issue for Southeast growers.

We thought Gulf State Market might make an excellent all purpose tomato, but only time would tell.