Tomato Plant Sale

Sunday, May 22, 2011, 10am-1pm

Choose your 2011 tomato varieties from a wide selection of garden-ready, organic tomato plants at Makaria Farm’s 3rd Annual Organic Tomato Plant Sale on Sunday, May 22, 2011, from 10am to 1pm (or whenever the plants are gone!).

A wide variety of organically-grown vegetable seedlings will also be available.

Prices
Plant in a 4-inch pot: $3.50 each, or $10 for three plants
Plant in a gallon pot: $5 each
Soil-block plant starts: $1/block or $5 for six blocks

What the Symbols Mean
*Grown from certified organic seed.
(OP) Open pollinated (you can save the seeds).
(F1) Hybrid (the plants may be more consistent & disease/pest resistant, but if you save the seeds they probably won’t breed true).
Tomato images & seed sources: West Coast Seeds, Johnny’s Seeds, William Dam Seeds, Salt Spring Seeds, Full Circle Seeds.

Our 2011 Tomato Plant Menu

Regular-sized Tomatoes (Vine)

Pink Beauty (F1)	Vine. Medium-sized (6-8 oz) pink & perfect tomatoes with rich flavour. Abundant and impressive at Makaria Farm in 2010.
Rose* (OP)	HEIRLOOM. Vine. Coreless. We fell in love with this tomato last year after eating one from Omega Blue Farm at the Bowen Road Farmer’s Market in Nanaimo. Divine.
Moskvich* (OP)	HEIRLOOM. Vine. Exceptionally cold tolerant. Fruits are early and deep red, with rich taste. 4-6 oz tomatoes.
Big Beef (F1)	Vine. Perfect beefsteak tomatoes. Extra large, smooth, weighing up to 1 pound. Large, vigorous, disease-resistant plants. Early & high yields. A favourite of veteran tomato growers at Maple Groove Farm and Alderlea Farm in Duncan, B.C.
Peron* OP)	HEIRLOOM. Vine. Regular-sized deep red tomatoes, early, juicy. Highly disease-resistant.
Bonny Best (OP)	Vine. Shorter vines but heavy producer. Medium-sized, smooth scarlet tomatoes.
Yellow Brandywine (OP) s	HEIRLOOM. Vine. Best-tasting yellow tomato. Soft, large yellow-orange fruits. Unbeatable juicy rich flavour. Produces in late summer but worth the wait, as long as you don’t get hit with blight!
Early Girl (F1)	Vine. 4-6oz red tomatoes on manageable, disease-resistant vines. Bears heavily throughout the summer. Check out Wikipedia’s entry for more …

More regular-sized-tomato plants are listed below in the “Weird Tomatoes” section: Green Zebra, Black Prince.

Regular-sized Tomatoes (Bush)

Celebrity (F1)	Bush. 225g attractive & consistent red tomatoes; taste test winner. Short staking / tomato cage is recommended.
Siletz* (OP)	Bush. Uniform 3-inch red tomatoes. Good disease resistance. Seedless until late summer.
Glacier* (OP)	HEIRLOOM. Bush. Early potato-leaf variety that begins to bloom at only 10cm (4″) tall! Short, productive season, perfect for container growing.
Heinz (Strain 1439) (OP)	Bush. Old variety developed for canning and processing. Strong, productive, wilt-tolerant plants. Good mid-season variety that produces 6 oz (170g) firm red tomatoes. Fine taste.

Cherry / Plum / Grape Tomatoes

Black Cherry* (OP)	Vine. Heirloom-quality taste. Almost black in colour. High yields.
Sweet Baby Girl (F1)	Small vines (“compact indeterminate”), even suitable for containers. Medium-large red cherry tomatoes. Great taste, tolerant to cracking and many diseases. Produces heavy yields of 1″, 25g tomatoes on long clusters.
Gold Nugget* (OP)	Bush. Deep yellow cherry tomatoes. Cold-weather tolerant. Early & prolific fruit set. Perfect for container gardening. An abundant, early favourite at Makaria Farm in 2010.
Sun Gold (F1)	Vine. Intense fruity flavour. Exceptionally sweet, bright tangerine-orange cherry tomatoes. Vigorous plants start yielding early and bear through the season. Tendency to split but the taste is worth it.
Red Currant* (OP)	HEIRLOOM. Vine. Tiny currant-sized fruits with intense sweet flavour. old Mexican heirloom. Vigorous growth.
Merrymaker* (OP)	HEIRLOOM. Vine. 2-inch red cherry tomatoes; old English heirloom variety; vigorous, productive; suited for greenhouse or garden.
Gardener’s Delight (OP)	Vine. 2-inch red cherry tomatoes. Old-fashioned flavour. Crack-resistant, and bears until frost.
Yellow Pear (OP)	HEIRLOOM. Vine. Pale-yellow mild tomatoes that look like miniature pears. Matures later than other cherry tomatoes. Best grown under a cloche, sheltered, or in a greenhouse.
Juliet (F1)	Vine. 2-inch sweet red tomatoes. Good crack resistance and storage. Vigorous vines. Taste test winner.

Sauce / Drying Tomatoes

Amish Paste (OP)	HEIRLOOM. Vine. Firm Roma tomatoes, not too juicy for fresh eating and make thick sauces. Perfect for patio containers, as long as you stake them or tie them to a trellis as needed.
Principe Borghese (OP)	Vine. Pointed plum-shaped red Italian tomatoes, perfect for fresh eating or drying: pick a cluster and hang it against a hot sunny wall to dry.
San Marzano* (OP)	Vine. Old Italian paste tomatoes: long, dark red fruits with few seeds, meaty and mild flesh. High yields. Cold weather tolerant.
Polish Linguisa* (OP)	HEIRLOOM. Vine. This Roma variety dates back to the 1800s. Abundant yields of large, 10 oz, sweet, sausage-shaped tomatoes. Vigorous vines. Can be more productive than many other Roma varieties.

Weird Tomatoes

Green Zebra* (OP)	Vine. A delicious, tangy fresh-eating tomato. Ripe just as the green fruit develops a yellow blush, accentuating the darker green stripes. 3-4 oz tomatoes. Productive over a long season. Technically not an heirloom, even though it’s weird-looking.
Black Prince* (OP)	HEIRLOOM. Vine. Mahogany brown, shoulders become orange0red at the blossom-end. Color will be deeper and more pronounced in sunnier locations. Distinctively rich, fruity tomato flavour. Relatively smooth 3-5 oz, 3″ tomatoes. Less susceptible to cracking than most heirlooms.
Burpees Longkeeper (OP)	Vine. Picked when green at the end of the season, these tomatoes will keep & ripen for 6-12 weeks under proper conditions. Golden orange-red tomatoes, medium-red inside when ripe. Eat your own fried tomatoes for Christmas breakfast!
Black Krim* (OP)	Vine. Dark red-purple, medium-sized tomatoes with green shoulders. The ugliest and most delicious tomato we’ve found yet: Makaria Farm’s #1 favourite for flavour so far.

PLEASE NOTE: we grow a limited number of each variety. Availability is also subject to how well the seeds germinate, and how well the plants grow.

Hope to see you at Makaria Farm on Sunday, May 22, 10am!