How A Seed Saver (DU's own NRaleighLiberal) Discovered One Of Our Favorite Tomatoes
Last edited Thu Jul 31, 2014, 09:17 PM - Edit history (1)
Marta and I had our first Cherokee Purple Tomato tonight. Organically grown and delicious! It came from here: http://www.iowanafarm.com/
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2013/08/12/211372152/how-a-seed-saver-discovered-one-of-our-favorite-tomatoes
A Cherokee purple tomato grown in Alaska in 2011.
by ELIZA BARCLAY August 14, 201312:31 PM ET
Sherry Shiesl Tatiana's TOMATObase
Fortunately for those of us who are suckers for novelty, every year fruits and vegetables seem to come in more bewitching colors, shapes and flavors. Lately, we've been tickled by the cotton candy grape and the vibrant orange Turkish eggplant. (Egg yolks can be ghostly white, too, but that's another story.)
If you go to the farmers market this time of year, tomatoes are strutting their stuff in all sorts of glorious and quirky hues: green striped, white, pink, even purplish-brown. They boast intriguing names, like Mortgage Lifter, Arkansas Traveler and Pink Berkeley Tie Dye. Some are true heirlooms, passed down over decades or centuries. Others are brand new to the world, the progeny of the latest cross-breeding experiments.
We got to wondering just who, besides farmers, is to thank for this expanding panoply. And we learned that while there are many professional breeders tinkering with the desirable traits that show up in the new varieties, amateur breeders — passionate seed savers and collectors — also play a vital role in discovering fruit and vegetable varieties guarded and nurtured by families over generations. Every now and then, these amateurs convince seed companies that the rest of the world will want to enjoy something they've discovered.
Craig LeHoullier, a retired chemist from Raleigh, N.C., can take credit for introducing us to the Cherokee Purple tomato, one of the most popular heirlooms grown and sold today. You'd be forgiven if your first impression of this fruit, with its ungainly bulges and tones of brown, green and purple, was dismissive. But its flavor consistently knocks socks off, with its balance of sweet, acid and savory — even a hint of smoke.
FULL story at link.
Be sure and say thanks to NRaleighLiberal for doing this.
OS
= new reply since forum marked as read
Both the magazine and the catalog foster a real sense of community.
The owners are a young couple totally dedicated to heirloom seeds and gardening.
NOT connected to the corporate world. 
Here it is growing in my Raleigh garden in 2002....first year I owned a digital camera!
yup...blushing here, but it is me!
I don't believe I've ever tasted this tomato, but now I would just love to. And when you write your book, please let us all know as I would definitely order a copy. Or maybe a weekly gardening column; do you by chance have a blog?
Good on ya for doing what you love and sharing it with the world!
my publisher tells me they will have me on the road for the first half of next year...yikes! Thanks for the heads up...I will pass that on to my publicist at Storey.
I'm glad I made this post.
by Cherokee Indians "100 years ago" (this was in 1990) - Seviereville, TN. I grew the tomato, it was the first chlorphyll-retention (aka "black" - in this case clear skinned, hence on the purple side) I'd heard of - so I took the lineage and the color, called it Cherokee Purple, and sent it to Southern exposure Seed Exchange.
So weird to walk through farmers markets and see it and realize that it is kinda my fault, in a way!
Seriously, I've been a very lucky gardener - so many people sent me so many great family heirlooms over the years - I got to name and introduce Lillian's Yellow Heirloom, ensure Anna Russian became well known, and so many others - the 1985-1995 period was really when heirlooms started to enter the mainstream and more gardeners started to focus on them...
and I'm going to blame you every time I eat one from my own garden.
There is a seed catalogue in Canada that carries it. They don't usually carry stuff that doesn't grow here, so I think it would grow in your climate (you may have to start them a bit earlier is all). 
He has put his heart and soul into tomatoes.....and we are all beneficiaries of his efforts.
Finally convinced hubby that we no longer needed to grow GMO seeds he had been getting from our local co-op. We had terrible luck w/garden the last 3 yrs. When he planted these seeds in the hotbed, he also planted some coop Bradley seeds he had saved. The difference in the plants was stunning. The Cherokee Purps were so much healthier & more vibrant. (I think I made a believer out of him. ) I must admit I was taken aback by the unusual shapes we've encountered from these Purps. Many remind me of a brain! The flavor is delicious though!
We got our seeds from Baker Creek Seed in MO.
THANKS, NRaleighLiberal! 
I hope to do Cherokee Purple next year. I grew it once before, but didn't have optimal gardening conditions and didn't have much experience. The very few tomatoes I got were so good, though.
This year I have Homestead, Mr. Stripey, Parks Whopper, Big Boy (?) and two others I can't remember the name of, one of them a cherry/grape tomato. The Parks Whopper and Big Boy were my mother's choice, and so far have produced nice tomatoes.
I've been processing tomatoes like crazy for the past few days, getting ready to make sauce. I'm putting a lot of the cherry/grape tomatoes away as diced tomatoes, at least the ones I'm not eating.
The garden is going to need to be much, much bigger next year. 
I may be thinking of someone else, but weren't you at one time over on the Garden Web, NRL? I remember reading about Cherokee Purple there, which is why I tried it when I found some plants (at Lowe's).
Hopefully it will be easily resolved - THANK YOU to NCRaleigh!
