Introducing Maiden's Gold

[ContainerTed]

After more than two years of careful work, I have revived a tomato with a history that goes back into the 1950's. I had carried the seeds around for more than 20 years and every now and then would raise a couple of plants and take fresh seeds. The last time I had grown some was in 1989 in Florida in a concrete flower pot. We had a fire in 1997 and I had resigned myself to having lost the seeds. Then, my wife was going through some old picture albums and there was the envelope.

In 2008, I was awakened by Carolyn and others as to what heirloom tomatoes were and why they should be maintained and saved for future generations to enjoy. So, in 2009, I sent Carolyn a couple pictures of where I finally got one of the 21 year old seeds to germinate (took two tries and more than 9 weeks). That plant delivered 5 tomatoes before the heat of Atlanta killed it. I managed to get about 250 mature seeds.

This year, I was able to get 5 plants from 6 seeds and they have grown fantastically. The pictures below show this wonderful tomato which I have named "Maiden's Gold". The taste is a wonderful full/mild with a generous helping of that old fashioned zing.

The average weight harvested this year was about 13 ounces. However, you can see that some will exceed a pound. I will be adding this tomato to Tatiana's database shortly.

Regular leaf, indeterminate, large plant, mid to late season, very prolific. Has a moderate shelf life after harvest, but, like others, will become mushy if left too long.

I now have enough seed and, Thanks to Carolyn, enough savvy to prolong this tomato into the future.

Not all heirlooms are made from precious metals and stones - Most are made of wonderful indelible memories.

Please enjoy one of my memories.

Ted

This is one of the fruit I got in 1987 from a container on an apartment balcony in Knoxville, TN. Yeah, that's me (when I was still good-lookin').
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Here's the much awaited seedling and sprout that finally came in 2009.
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This is the first fruit I got after reviving that single seed. That's a Pritamin Paprika pepper with it for size comparison.
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From this year's harvest, here's the sliced view and a good look at the locules after seeds were removed.
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And finally, here's some of the larger tomatoes harvested this year.
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And now, I would like to give a very public "THANK YOU" to Carolyn. Her patience and endless informative answers to my "newbie" questions over on that forum where I can't go now, kindled the heirloom flame in me and motivated this old man to try to recover what he had unknowingly and foolishly almost lost.

Carolyn, my usually good vocabulary cannot find words that are adequate.

A very thankful

Ted