Monday, August 17, 2009

The Prettiest Tomato of Them All

In my garden, there is no contest as to the most attractive tomato. Sure Sungold looks like little orange jewels, the push-up orange color or persimmon is an attention getter and Black Krim is pretty in a dark sort of way. The queen of the garden, however is Chocolate Stripes.

Chocolate Stripes has mannerisms consistent with royalty. She makes you wait, being the latest to ripen of my varieties. She is strong and has resisted all of the bits of illness that have touched other varieties this year. Her taste is something special, sweet rich and complex. She was not a sure thing, she needed some coddling to get her off and running. She, like Persimmon are definitely fans of warmth. The cool, wet weather we had for the most of the summer made her sulk. I'm saving the seeds from this big girl in the photo as well as regrowing some of my seeds from this year, next year. This late in the year when I'm hauling in 15-20 slicers a day, pretty little girls like this are wonderful for keeping my interest up.

8 comments:

Daphne Gould said...

Wow what stunning tomatoes. You should take a photo when you cut it up so we can see what it looks like inside.

Chicago Garden said...

That has to be the most beautiful tomato I ever seen.

It is almost too pretty to even think about eating.

Kylee Baumle said...

Ooooh, those are GORGEOUS! My first thought was that they remind me of those lipsticks of a couple of years ago that all had a gold sheen to whatever color they were. You couldn't really put your finger on why they were so pretty, you just knew they were something out of the ordinary. Just like your tomatoes.

LJ said...

Beautiful! It looks like a Christmas tree ornament. I read a post on Tomatoville the guy said his green zebra turned red. I wonder if he has a chocolate stripes instead.

Jezibels said...

What a beauty! I was glad to see your last post was when my last post on my blog was! We both got caught up in summer and life! Its a good sign that we are not indoors on the pc, we are out enjoying our beautiful gardens in all their glory! Now that summer is winding down, I will try and clear out some beds to make more room for winter crops and that cold frame Ive been meaning to build!

Stacy said...

Hi Jez.
Yeah August has flown hasn't it? We got busy with school starting and it was crazy for awhile, but the weather is too gorgeous not to be squeezing in a bit of gardening. : )

JGH said...

Oh, that is a special one! I grew one similar this year called vintage wine, but the green stripes weren't as dark. I'll have to look for this.

Sylvana said...

OK. I love your blog. I found you from the home page of blotanical as a featured blog -- but I can't find your profile to fave you! Weird.