Few vegetables are more central to the Summer garden than tomatoes. As we prepare to plant this years seeds, I thought to share some standouts that are new and old favorites of mine.

Siskiyou Seeds offers 75 varieties of tomatoes and stewards a few dozen more not on our website. I am excited to share some of my favorites here!

Click on Variety names to view in Shop.

CHERRY:

Champagne Bubbles Tomato - Siskiyou Seeds

Champagne Bubbles - Also known as White Currant.  Has a very vigorous growth habit that requires trellising.  Produces very abundant fruit sets of small (3/4-1”) round pale yellow fruits the color of Champagne.  Flavor is very sweet and amazes all who try it.  Dare I say – our sweetest cherry tomato?! 

PASTE:

Amish Paste - A large, meaty and high yielding with great texture and flavor. It has very good flavor for a paste tomato. A very impressive strain. Amish Paste tied for first place in our 2016 Roma & Paste tomato trial with Ropreco Paste. Just writing this makes our mouths water thinking of opening preserved sunkissed tomato sauce in the middle of Winter. Determinate.

Polish Linguisa - An early maturing, large fruited (10-12 ounce), sausage shaped heirloom brought from Poland in the 1800s. Solid, meaty fruits are quite flavorful and pleasing for a paste type. Versatile and beautiful!

LARGE HEIRLOOMS:

Berekely Tye-Dye - This is a remarkable, large-fruited specimen with green fruit that has red and yellow stripes. Creamy green flesh infused with various shades of red and yellow is complex, fruity and somewhat low acid. It's likely that you haven't seen anything like this. 8-20 oz fruits. Bred by Brad Gates of Wild Boar Farms.

Cherokee Purple Tomato, Siskiyou Seeds

Cherokee Purple - Cherokee Purple produces 8-12 oz fruits that are a combination of red, green and purplish brown. It is a highly flavorful heirloom slicer that regularly places at or near the top of taste tests. Medium vigorous vines benefit from trellising, which also helps to ensure that fruit quality is enhanced.  While this variety references a name for the Cherokee Indigenous nation, it turns out that it was named by someone who was not a tribal member, we are still learning about the origins and appropriate way to reference this awesome variety.  

Moldovan Green - This is a large heirloom type with 8-12-ounce fruits that are a flattened globe and picked when green with a golden glow under the skin. Flesh is an intriguing lime green with darker translucent green around the seed cavity.  Their flavor is out-of-this-world pleasantly sweet and rich with no acidity and perfect texture.  They surprisingly became our FAVORITE! fresh eating tomato.  Try them, you’ll see.

BEEFSTEAK SLICER:

Granny Cantrall’s - The original seeds were given to Lettie Cantrell from a World War II soldier returning home from Germany. Large Pink/Red beefsteak type fruits can weigh up to 2 pounds and are slightly flattened and lobed. A favorite in our taste tests in on-farm trials here. Has that classic heirloom full-bodied flavor that is a combination of all great things tomato. A regular winner of tomato taste offs. Indeterminate.

Siskiyou Slicer - Classic Red. This variety came to us from the collection of seedsman and breeder Dr. Alan Kapuler. Siskiyou Slicer produces nice 1-2 pound flattened red fruits with few seeds, a nice firm texture and great rich flavor. The most productive red slicer in our recent trials. In 2022 we are selecting the Siskiyou Slicer to again go to a nation wide trial through Seedlinked alongside many other slicing tomatoes to be able to offer more data on this marvelous and lesser known delight!  Originally named Oregon Large Slicing Tomato (ORLST) this tomato was developed from the hybrid beefsteak, "Whooper". Mildly indeterminate.

ORANGE:

Nebraska Wedding - First listed in the 1983 Seed Savers Exchange Yearbook by Dorothy Beiswenger of Crookston, Minnesota who originally received the seeds from a Mrs. Englert of Sandpoint, Idaho, who was seventy-two years old at that time. Mrs. Englert told a story that her pioneer ancestors from Minnesota had brought the seeds with them when they settled in western Nebraska in the late 1800’s. It was Mrs. Englert’s claim that the seeds of this tomato were given to Nebraska brides as wedding gifts.  Fruits are large (2-3”, 4-7 oz) and more orange than yellow.  They scored very high in our on-farm taste tests and their color and appearance were found to be very pleasing. 

MID-SIZED: 

Afghan Orange Tomato - Siskiyou Seeds

Tomato, Afghan Orange - This is a traditional Afghan tomato with tangy, sweet, and, non-acidic flavor. People who enjoy a low acidity tomato will be impressed. Small and medium size yellow-orange fruits with a range of shapes from globular to deeply ruffled. Great fresh eating, saucing and specialty market tomato. Early bearing. Indeterminate.

UNUSUAL:

Chesnovy - A unique cultivar from Ukraine. Unlike anything that you've ever seen! Rather than a globe shaped fruit more typical of tomatoes, Chesnovy's fruits look like a bunch of cherry tomatoes all connected together. Fruits can grow up to 14 ounces and are definitely a conversation starter.  Another name for them is "the traveler's tomato", as travelers would carry them on journeys and tear off chunks to eat out of hand. Flavor is mild sweet and approachable. 

Green Zebra - Has very unique dark green and yellow stripes on 1.5-2” fruits that are quite a conversation starter. It is more tart (described as 'spicy' and 'zingy') than regular tomatoes, and is an early breed. Green Zebra was bred by Tom Wagner of Everett, Washington, and introduced in his Tater-Mater Seed Catalog in 1983. It is not an heirloom tomato, despite often being mistakenly designated as one.