A few days ago I was thrilled to find a "Vintage Brandywine" heirloom tomato in the Piopio Community Fruit & Veg Stand. I'd put some plants of this special heirloom variety in the stand earlier in the season, grown from seeds saved from two tomatoes I came across grown by Curious Croppers and sold at the Clevedon Farmers Market.
They have beautiful red and green striations, and are nice and meaty. Just my type of tomato.
But you will be starting to guess that there's more to this story. I'd saved a few of the plants grown in the glasshouse from those I contributed to the community stand to plant out in our tomato beds here at Struan Farm. The only problem was that it turned out I'd mislabelled the plants I kept--they were black cherries! So I wasn't able to grow any Vintage Brandywines at all this year, much to my dismay.
I thought I'd lost out on the opportunity to grow them entirely (seeds aren't available for purchase here in NZ) until I came across this lovely tomato at the stand. It was enjoyed in a "caprese" salad with Clevedon Buffalo mozzarella and homemade pesto, but seeds have been saved for next year's crop.
And rest assured I won't mislabel them again!
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