Quote:
Originally Posted by PureHarvest
Urban, I am in a similar boat.
I am going to pare down.
My buyer resells at his large retail produce stand in a high end area.
Pretty much pointless to grow anything red no matter how large it is.
The customers can get that from his standard tomato display.
The heirlooms have to be pink or brown/black or striped etc.
His eyes lit up when he saw my black beauty (which is one of my favorite tasting this year and productive).
People buying heirlooms here want the unique. They don't seem to care about a red heirloom. In fact, I sense there could be a segment that now thinks if it's red it can't be an heirloom.
The restaurant scene is similar but I am going to move away from that next year. They just don't move the volume I need to unload to make real money. And doing delivery twice a week to multiple stops to drop of a box or two at each place in a busy beach area is a nightmare.
I have a good friend that is a broker that will be able to move 40 boxes a week for me to a guy he supplies that does a produce route to dc and ny restaurants.
Uniformity and production are the two keys for my selections next year.
My stuff is over the place with size this year. Grading and correctly packing the product is a must if you are selling to people who handle lots of product. I would not make the money that I want with the culls I have this year.
So what heirloom or OP do you all like that is productive and a uniform size that is not red?
Is CP uniform for you? Productive?
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Pure, it does seem like we do many things similar, but you deal in much higher volume than I do. In regards to Cherokee Purple, I always grow these as the flavor offsets some of the deformities. My buyer knows that heirlooms will have some weird shapes.
In regards to productivity and size, I will give you my picks for this year that I will grow again next year. I understand the R & R thing, but one variety that you might want to still consider is WV 63. It is definitely round and red, but the one selling characteristic with this one is how dense it is with few seeds. It is definitely very prolific.
I will grow Lucid Gem again next year. It does have a few odd shaped ones, but most are uniform. It has that great look and very good flavor.
In regards to the pink, I grew Rose this year. It is my favorite pink variety now. Great taste, uniform, few blemishes and very large size with many over a pound. This picture looks kind of red, but it really is dark pink.
Now to the black/chocolate varieties. Winners are Blue Ridge Black & Tsindao, They have nice uniformity and have been very productive. Here is a picture of Tsindao:
Now to the salads. My top picks so far this year are Trentons Tiger, Black Icicle, Red Zebra and Sarandipity (dwarf variety). They all have been extremely productive, beautiful colors and very good tasting.
Red Zebra
Sarandipity
Trenton's Tiger
Black Icicle (most are usually longer than this one)
On to the yellows/bi-colors. I have always had good luck with Big Rainbow. I grew Kelloggs Breakfast this year and they have just starting coming in, so the verdict is still out on these. The one I cut up last night was pretty good though. It was the most dense tomato that I have seen with hardly any seed pockets. Taste was pretty good for a yellow/orange (full disclosure, I am a black tomato junkie in regards to flavor).
The only other one I would add at this point is Brown Flesh Jumbo. You can't go wrong with the colors, productivity, uniform size & good flavor. Sorry, but I don't have a picture with me of this variety, but will post one later.
So those are my keepers so far this year so far. The verdict is still out for some other varieties.