Saturday, March 31, 2012

Cherokee Purple Tomato

Since we were visiting with Juneau's old friends and family in Franklin, TN all day, here is an older drawing of Cherokee Purple Tomatoes:
The SESE catalog tells me that these are a pre-1890 Tennessee heirloom, reportedly of Cherokee Indian origin. It would be interesting to somehow trace these tomatoes back to their parent varieties even before the Cherokee grew them since tomatoes are originally from South America and were spread after the Spanish Colonization of the Americas. I would just be curious what hands the tomatoes and their seeds passed through and how many cultures to become this dark disease-resistant variety today.

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