Joe's Pink Oxheart
 

I will never clutter this forum with threads about individual varieties. But every once in awhile something hits you like a bolt of lightning, and a thread must be started.

I got this variety from Carolyn this year, and it has been growing in a horrible little corner of my tomato field. Everything else in that area is growing very poorly and is disease-ridden. In addition to below average soil, the plants are dealing with the fact that I put them in too early.

Joe's Pink Oxheart stands out for 2 reasons --
1. The plant is a vigorous vine that has strikingly resisted my (unconscious) efforts to kill everything in the area.
2. The big, plentiful heart-shaped fruits are absolutely phenomenal. As the description below says, there are few seeds in the fruit, but the flavor is fantastic. A great slicer.

I suggest that interested folks go to [URL="http://stores.homestead.com/LazyOxFarm/Detail.bok?no=167"]the source[/URL] for seeds.

Note: I have read lots of websites where it seems like EVERY TOMATO is described with a string of superlatives like those seen in the link above. This is a rare case where the description is probably an understatement.

OOooooh does sound good and the picture of the lil girl holding the tomato on homestead's site looks delish! Is that how big your's have been?

Oh and please clutter the forum with individual varieties...I love reading about all of them!

Mine have been mostly 8-12 ounces. Seemingly big for an oxheart.

wow quite an endorsement coming from someone we all respect. I imagine they will have a "run" on those seeds now at the site you mention. I have added it to my own wish list based on your opinion and I too enjoy reading posts like this. By the way, I grew your blush tomato this year and it is definitely a new favorite of mine and it was the earliest indeterminate cherry size to ripen in my Northern garden. I am looking forward to trying more of your creations. I am a fan :)
KarenO

Thanks Fred, it sounds like a great tomato. They also had a few other varieties that I've been wanting to try. Next year's list is growing:)

Steve

I offered this variety in my Jan 2013 seed offer and will be offering it again, but see below.

Two years ago I did get seeds from Margie at another message site. Neil L grew it out for seed production, and it was one of the best hearts he'd ever grown, and that's saying a lot since he's grown thousands of varieties/

But his seed production was very low so in my next seed offer I asked for volunteers to do seed production and they were:

[B][COLOR=#ff0000]Joe's[/COLOR][/B] [B][COLOR=#ff0000]Pink[/COLOR][/B] [B][COLOR=#ff0000]Oxheart[/COLOR][/B]

PaulF
lurley
Linda 10

Many times you've seen me post, especially when folks are talking about seed trading, that I would like to think they would consider buying at least half of their seeds from the smaller family run businesses b'c they need our support in these economic times and also are the ones who are also preserving varieties by making them available to thepublic..

Margie was generous with me,I sent her several varieties she didn't have, as thanks,and I do hope some of you will buy from her and she has some other good varieties as well,

Just tell her that Carolyn Male sent you.:lol:

And yes,I did send Fred seeds for several heart varieties b/c I'd like to see him and
Mark come up with some hearts, whether bees, or wasps, or whatever.;)I love his breeding accomplishments, I l love hearts,so there you go.:)

Carolyn

Edited to add that in the Fall I put up the performance thread for all the varieties that folks got from me in this last offer,and I know that there were quite a few who requested Joe's Pink Oxheart, so let's see how it did for folks in different parts of the country.

Thanks for the Link!
~Alfredo

Thanks for the heads up Fred. I'll definitely keep Joe's Pink Oxheart in mind for next year.

I was trying to remember how I first made contact with Margie, I knew it was at idig,so did a search right now and found the thread.

[URL]http://idigmygarden.com/forums/showthread.php?t=40937&highlight=Joe%27s+Pink+Oxheart[/URL]

You can see that I pushed Margie to find out more about the variety, and she did, and that's what she now writes at her website.

At first, I didn't even know she had a website until we started exchanging e-mails, and at the bottom of her e-mails was a link to her website.

Going through the back threads I did see someone else listing it in a grow list so she must have sent seeds to some others as well.

I SSE listed it in the 2013 SSE Yearbook and also sent seeds for trial to those seed company owners I've known for a long time, as well as offering it in my Jan 2013 seed offer.

It really does deserve to be well known IMO.:)

Carolyn

As noted above, by others, Joe's Pink Oxheart produces very few seeds. While this makes it a challenge to save seeds, it makes the tomato great for sandwiches. It doesn't soak the bread, because most of the interior is silky, solid flesh.

[QUOTE=carolyn137;369654]

Margie was generous with me,I sent her several varieties she didn't have, as thanks,and I do hope some of you will buy from her and she has some other good varieties as well,

Just tell her that Carolyn Male sent you.:lol:

What seed company does she have?

[url]http://stores.homestead.com/LazyOxFarm/StoreFront.bok[/url]

Lazy Ox Farm

I purchased seeds for Joe's Pink Oxheart and a few other varieties from Margie this year, and the service was very prompt.

[QUOTE=Doug9345;369738][QUOTE=carolyn137;369654]

Margie was generous with me,I sent her several varieties she didn't have, as thanks,and I do hope some of you will buy from her and she has some other good varieties as well,

Just tell her that Carolyn Male sent you.:lol:

What seed company does she have?[/QUOTE]

Fred linked to it in his first post here, as SOURCE.

Thanks Fred for linking to it again.

I'd like to let Margie know about this thread, but I don't think she's a member here, and thus sending her this thread won't help, b'c she can't read it.

OK, Fred's thread is already found on a Google search, so I saved the whole search and his thread seperately, and will send both to her via e-Mail, with the hopes she can read them and know that she has a great variety there,

I went through her other tomato seeds early this Am andsaw that she was also listing Anna Maria's Heart, which is one that I sent her. I can't remember theo thers, except for PSR-37 without finding the right data notebook.:?:

Carolyn

That tomato looks like it'd make BLT's for four people. Gorgeous !

Just placed my order with Lazy Ox Farms for those "Joe's Pink Oxheart" tomato seeds (along with some other interesting seeds I haven't seen anywhere else).

Didn't want to risk waiting only to find out they're sold out.:evil: That's happened to me before and I learned my lesson.:)

Thanks again for the recommendation Fred.

~Alfredo

[QUOTE=Alfredo;371525]J
Didn't want to risk waiting only to find out they're sold out.:evil: That's happened to me before and I learned my lesson.:)

Thanks again for the recommendation Fred.

~Alfredo[/QUOTE]

I received my order in a few days with a nice personalized invoice. Margie has mentioned that Joe's Pink Oxheart has very few seeds, so your plan to order early is probably wise!

I'm really looking forward to growing this one.

Steve

I'm glad that some of you are ordering directly from Margie.

Yes, I still have lots of seeds for it for my next seed offer, but I much prefer that you support Margie and what she has at her website.

Thanks,

Carolyn

I ordered some seeds yesterday, didn't want to wait until it was too late. There were some interesting varieties at the website, had to try a new one: Eva Purple Ball x Big Beef.
Already planning my garden for next summer, hope it goes better than this year!

I ordered, too...

LazyOxFarm Items
1 Tomato Seed, Paul Robeson Heirloom
1 Tomato Seed, Joe's Pink Oxheart

Received my order today, very prompt service/shipping. Nice size packages with good number seeds. Very excited for next year!

I guess Lazy Ox Farms is getting a lot of orders in the off season! I have mine already- they ship seeds FREE with no minumim order.

And I must remember to e-mail Margie and give her the Google search where this thread is listed since she's not a member here so I can't send her the thread directly, although I think I'll throw it in anyway.

I've GOT to start making to do lists and I just discovered 5 e-mails that I never responded to and that bothers me a lot. And there's that thread I was going to put up about language translations and I haven't done that either.

However, when I'm perfect in all ways I'll start a thread here saying that.:lol:

Finally, I'm not going to put up that performance thread for the varieties that many of you got from my seed offer until maybe mid-Sept.

Many of you already know what you have but many in the semi-tundra areas do not.:)

Carolyn

I am growing Joe's Pink Heart and I am impressed. Right now I have huge ripe tomatoes on the vine and several green. I haven't picked them yet because I am not positive if they are ripe. They are dusty pink color with green shoulders. The few photos I found online of Joe's Pink Heart haven't been the top of the tomato. I live in Northern Minnesota so my tomatoes don't ripen to as deep of color as they do further south. My Black Krim"s are perfect when they are a dusty mauve color with green shoulders so I don't expect Joe's Pink Heart to get any darker. I am mainly curious about the green shoulders. I am really looking forward to tasting this tomato so I want to harvest it at the peak of ripeness. Thank you.

Mine had green shoulders and were light pink when peak flavor!

Thanks!

Just noting that I did e-mail Margie and sent her the link to this thread.She replied ASAP and said yes she had been receivomg a lot of orders for it and said:

[COLOR=#000000][FONT=arial]"That's very nice. Thank you! I have had lots of orders containing Joe's Pink recently. Thank you for promoting it."[/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=arial] [/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=arial]And then of course we talked tomato varieties as alway seems to happen when I correspond with someone .Margie is a first class person in IMO.[/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=arial] [/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=arial]I also pointed out to her that thread was started by Fred and without that the variety would not have recieved the attention that it did[/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=arial] [/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=arial]Carolyn,who is eager to hear the feedback when she puts up the perfomance thread for this one and all the others she distributed seeds for in her Jan seed offer here a tville.[/FONT][/COLOR]

From the source of seeds sent to Carolyn some were kept back and grown out this year. So far this crazy summer 10 Joe's have been picked with an average weight of around 24 ounces. There are another 6-8 unripe ones still on the vine. Below is a photo just taken with the latest three. From left the weight is 18 oz., 14 oz. and 30 ounces. Flavor is 8.5 of 10 with me and my wife as judges. Very meaty, a little juicy and great on a BLT.

I wouldn't have called that an ox heart looking at the shape but it is a pretty tomato. I have ordered from Lazy Ox because of this thread.

I just found the pictures from the Idig thread and I see it does look like a heart. Tania needs some pictures and more information on her site.