tomato gems in grocery

[piegirl]

The free samples at the store today were these cherry toms called 'tomato gems' - a pint basket of mixed color cherries. The small orange was a spitter, the red so-so and then there was the spoiled one - which was a purple-ish with green stripes. That one came home with me and the seeds are drying as I write. The fragrance was good, the taste was quite good, texture - tough, perhaps not really ripe. Anyone else see these? And any idea what the 'spoiled' one could be? I'll plant seeds just for fun! Piegirl

[strmywthr3]

I've seen them at the grocery store but haven't bought any. The price is outrageous. they were also in the refrigerated section and I don't like my toms refrigerated.

[violet0996]

If this is what you saw then it looks like they're canadian grown greenhouse tomatoes, but I don't see any useful information about variety names.

http://www.gipaanda.bc.ca/products/medley.html

Do you suppose it's a trade secret?

[Lilypon]

Violet you found it...this page lists the names of their tomatoes: http://www.gipaanda.bc.ca/farmers_markets/products.html

and page 2: http://www.gipaanda.bc.ca/farmers_ma...products2.html

(well some have names listed.....others are pretty generic)

[Raymondo]

The orange grape looks like toms sold in supermarkets here. Store bought they're pretty good, home grown they're great, an explosion of flavour, so probably not the one described. Nice name though - Oro d'arancia (does that mean golden orange?). Be interesting to see what Tiger Tomato is like when home grown.

[piegirl]

Tiger tomato - that's the one. We will see what happens. The little orange one was not good. The Tiger may have been unripe but it was crunchy like the description says. Good aroma and taste from a grocery tomato. Piegirl

[Lilypon]

Piegirl I haven't seen the "tomato gems" here yet. When you have spare seeds could you save some of the "Tiger Tomato" for me?

[tomatoaddict]

That Tiger tomato looks exactly like Guernsey Island. I grew it last season.

[piegirl]

the Tiger tomato seeds have germinated. They were planted directly in the ground at the end of row of tomatoes. Should be fun to see what they turn into - that one description said crunchy- and the sample was crunchy.
Piegirl

[feldon30]

I'm growing Guernsey Island this year. It's pretty good and very productive. Coloration is as tomatoaddict describes, dusky red with green stripes. The fruit are about ping pong ball sized or maybe a little bigger. Zippy flavor, I need to taste more to come to a good conclusion.

[Little_Rhody]

Piegirl,

I bought those tomatoes at Bjs in Massachusetts in 2006 and saved seeds from the tiger tomatoes. I grew them out in 2007. They are a determinate and susceptible to disease, in my garden anyway. I have grown green zebra and black zebra and they come down with the same type of foliage disease (dying black leaves at the bottom). All the tomatoes, 4 plants, produced the same type of striped cherry as the parent. I also thought they were tasty, not bland at all.

[dokutaaguriin]

Guernsey Island:
I would say that it had bronze like striping on it.
Jeff

[feldon30]

Yeah the coloring on mine is the same, it could be green, it could be bronze.


Guernsey Island

I think wherever the green striping catches the sun, it is somewhat reflective and sparkley.


Guernsey Island

[feldon30]

I saved seeds from 5 of these today so I'd have plenty of seeds.

I have to say I am not real impressed now that I have other choices in the garden. Eaten when a little underripe, the skin is firm, and the taste is somewhat tart. When allowed to get fully ripe, they get kind of mushy and tasteless. It's productive as heck, but I don't know if I'd grow it again. But everyone has different tastes, so I saved a bunch of seeds.