A source for heirloom tomato plants
I got an e-mail this morning from the folks at Riverside Nursery in Salem, who are fully stocked for the summer gardening season.
Apparently, owner Bruce Feldberg noticed the rising popularity if heirloom and specialty tomato varieties in gardening magazines and on food shows and local plates. As a result, he has not 10 or 20 varieties for sale at his store, but 90!!
Feldberg also has 40 different kinds of peppers, so head over and check those out, too.
So far, my vegetable garden consist of two cherry tomato seedlings in paper cups that I got from a co-worker. I’d also like to get a few Better Boy plants, but my plot isn’t quite ready for anything yet. I’ve also purchased some seeds for rainbow chard, yellow squash and zucchini.
I guess I’ve got some work to do!
April 14, 2008 - 11:17 AM
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Hi, Lindsey; So nice to hear of a local source for heirlooms and so many different kinds of peppers! You can’t go wrong with heirlooms – they got that way because they are reliable, hardy, and usually tastier than the hybrids, too. I’ve had excellent luck with heirloom varieties of different plants, tomatoes, even peas, beans and squash. Last year I planted Sweet Baby Girl tomatoes, and they produced profusely. Smaller than Better Boys but good all-purpose tomatoes that did well fresh, in soup stock, and canned. I’m trying some heart tomatoes this year – an heirloom from Europe that was used in the US for many years. We’ll see how they do! I’d be curious, though, about others’ favorite heirlooms. Any tips?
Julie, I had a black heart tomato last summer. Bought it on the Roanoke City Market. It really did look like a human heart because it was a bluish-black color. It was very low-acid and delicious for slicing.
I’m trying to grow Constuloto Genovese Heirloom Tomatoes this year – they are supposed to be the best for making sauces.