Beauty Lottringa AKA Lorraine Beauty

Lorraine Beauty are huge, flattish, ruffled tomatoes that grow on shorter vines that get up to 4 feet tall. They are very disease resistant. The fruits will ripen to a deep red and the largest ones can reach 1.5 pounds. The largest fruits weigh upto 20 ounces and smallest around 8 ounces. This is a superb sauce tomato.

Lorraine Beauty is a regular leaf, determinate, midseason, beefsteak variety. This variety has a well balanced, rich, tomato flavor that you can't go wrong with. This tomato originated from the United Kingdom. There is a yellow version of this tomato.

Gigante Farina

Gigante Farina is a variety that came from Mr. Remo Farina, a retired truck driver from Bleggio, Italy. He holds the record for largest tomato in Italy.

This variety hails from the Bleggio region, Italy. This is a big red fruit that can reach reach the 2 pound mark and sometimes weigh even more. It is a bulging beefsteak with deeply ribbed shoulders.It is a very dense variety with beefy flesh and little gel and seeds. This is a late season, indeterminate, regular leaf variety. Photo courtesy of Tomato Jim Wyant

Hopkins Revolutionary Tomato

Hopkins Revolutionary tomato is a yellowish-orange beefsteak variety. It's a regular leaf indeterminate. It's a rare Appalachian heirloom variety. The fruits can weigh up to 1 pound-1.5 pounds, but the average weight is between 8-10 ounces. Hopkins Revolutionary is a Hopkins family heirloom. It's the namesake of Hopkins County, Steuben's Lick, Kentucky. Steuben's Lick is named for the Prussian soldier Friedrich Wilhelm Ludolf Gerhard Augustin, Baron von Steuben. He was born in 1730, in Prussia, which is what present day Germany was known as. He came to America in 1777 to aid the cause of the Revolution. Baron von Steuben instructed George Washington's army at Valley Forge and was appointed the first Inspector General of the Army. Baron von Steuben died in New York in 1794. Hopkins Revolutionary was named after Samuel Hopkins, who was born in Albermarle County, Virginia, in 1753, Samuel was the son of Dr. Samuel Hopkins and Isabella Taylor Hopkins. He played substantial role in the Revolutionary War. Hopkins settled in Kentucky in 1797. There, he embarked on an impressive political career. Hopkins served in both houses of the Kentucky legislature, was a U.S. Congressman, and served as a presidential elector, voting for James Madison in 1809. During this time he served as an agent of the Transylvania Company, and Hopkins was instrumental in the surveying and establishing Henderson County.

Photo is courtesy of Tomato Jim Wyant.

Sart Roloise

The Sart Roloise tomato is a show-stopper for any garden. This is just a stunning looking tomato. Where most anthocyanin varieties lack in flavor, that doesn't apply to the Sart Roloise. It has a very unique and distinct coloration. It is one of the few varieties that is black on the top side and white on the bottom end. There are also usually bluish-blackish vertical streaks on the lower parts of this beautiful tomato. They turn dark purple wherever the sun touches them and are sweet and earthy with lots of juice. That makes this variety perfect for a tomato sandwich or on top of a burger. The plants can easily reach 8-10' so be sure to either prune them or give them space to sprawl.

The Sart Roloise tomato originated in the Sart region of Belgium. Roland Boulanger, of Sart Eustache, Belgium, created the variety in 2012 by crossing White Wonder, a white beefsteak, and Baby Blue, an anthocyanin cherry variety. It is a beefsteak variety that is slightly flattened and round in shape. The shoulders are ribbed and plump. Fruits typically weigh between 10-20 ounces. Sart Roloise (pronounced s-art roe-lay) is an indeterminate, regular leaf variety that is best for fresh eating.

Pruden's Purple

Pruden's Purple has a murky history. They are, indeed, a true heirloom variety. It's not really a purple tomato, but, rather, pink. It has slight ribbing on the shoulders. It is an indeterminate, potato leaf beefsteak variety.

It's often compared to a Brandywine tomato, but it is a lot earlier to mature. It has been referred to as Prudence. The seeds were reintroduced in the mid-1980s to SSE. This old family heirloom doesn’t have a clear history, but the story attributes its development to an old woman in Eastern Kentucky by the name of Mrs. Pruden. I've also heard that the woman's name was Prudence and the name Pruden was a shortened for of that. The fruits of this variety routinely weigh in the 10-16 ounce range. As is the usual with potato leaf varieties, Pruden's Purple is disease resistant. It is a favorite with the northern gardener because it will thrive in cooler climates.

I grew this variety last year and it was a favorite, not only in looks, but in taste. It was a fantastic variety to use on a tomato sandwich.