Cherokee Purple

It's always a roller coaster ride, that's for sure.

Mark, I was over yesterday and got me some Cherokee Purple and had for breakfast before the show today a BLT and nothing any better that I can think of than Cherokee Purple and a BLT.

Well, we were unable to share with you, but we took some Rufus tomatoes that Phil had grown.

And Melissa made a couple of tomato pies with that.

With a PhD in chemistry from Dartmouth and a 25-year career in pharmaceuticals, he later shifted full time into gardening and seed saving.

Craig is a longtime advisor to Seed Savers Exchange, and is credited with helping popularize varieties like Cherokee Purple tomatoes.

He co-leads the Dwarf Tomato Breeding Project and authored Epic Tomatoes, a widely respected guide for home growers.

Welcome to the show today, Craig.

Now, for tomatoes, because Burpee's Big Boy came out in 1949 and pushed seed companies towards developing and selling hybrids, because you had to come back to the company and buy the hybrid if you wanted more, tomatoes that have been in existence prior to 1949 are what I call open-pollinated or heirlooms.

So Burpee in 1949 put out Burpee's Big Boy, which revolutionized what seed companies were doing, and they started selling hybrids from, and focusing on hybrids after 1949.

So I like to use that as a guidepost for my definition of heirlooms, and think that anything in existence prior to 1949, even tomatoes like Rutgers, Marglobe, that were developed by universities or seed companies, along with things like Cherokee Purple and Mortgage Lifter, which date back much further, are heirlooms to me.

And things like Green Zebra, our Dwarf Tomato Project varieties, I c- I think of those as tomorrow's heirlooms, because they're a little bit too new to know if people in 50 years are gonna wanna grow them.

He's the most requested guest, and every conversation is a deeper dive into expert tips on how to grow better tomatoes, as well as life lessons as gardeners of the bigger picture.

Craig LeHoullier is known and respected around the world for his knowledge of all things tomatoes, from growing and seed saving, plant breeding, to co-founder of the Dwarf Tomato Project, and the person who actually named the Cherokee Purple Tomato.

Craig is a friend to all, and I've had the great pleasure of having Craig as a close friend and my co-creator on our in-depth online course, Growing Epic Tomatoes, in the Online Gardening Academy.

Craig has been a passionate gardener for over 45 years.

They're planted in blocks.

And that means in the middle of your block of Gold Star, you can choose the best individuals as mother plants and hope that pollen from, say, Cherokee Purple hasn't gotten to them.

And it's been working.

It's been working.

The two big tomato plants that I have, they've died.

My Purple Cherokee died and my Black Brandywine tomato both died.

They set out...

They had, like, a desperate attempt to, like, set fruit.

it could also be like some kind of wilt yeah or blight

mm-hmm

because especially like purple Cherokee that's an heirloom one it's super susceptible to like I I bet you you got some kind of wilt or blight or nematode root not nematode

possibly and then I also I got to start rotating the the garden bed yeah yeah I

What's the purple one, the big purple one that's...

Cherokee purple?

Cherokee purple.

Yeah.

That is

Are they mostly delicious? Yes.

Mostly Brandywine is really good.

Cherokee Purple is a good one.