Well, that's one reason I'm saving my own seed year after year -- having stumbled upon this random variety that seems to cope with the local conditions rather better and be much more productive at a smaller size than all the others I've been given, I'm hoping to evolve my own landrace from it ;-D It's just a pity the lady who originally gave me a spare plant from a batch that were given to her has no idea what variety it might have been...
But the great thing is that it seems to breed true, at least for all the qualities I'm interested in; the plants are low, bushy, reasonably hardy, surviving extreme heat, limited water supply and chilly nights, and produce plenty of fruit that mostly ripens before the end of the season. I can be self-sufficient in fresh tomatoes for a couple of months a year, and the rest of the year I just don't eat them :-p I learned at my mother's knee that there are some things one should just never buy out of season, because they are not only expensive but flavourless, and tomatoes and strawberries are prime among those. A ripe tomato is a summer treat. A generic 'salad tomato' eaten in February because English salads have tomato in them by default is generally not worth having.
Re: Yay!
It's just a pity the lady who originally gave me a spare plant from a batch that were given to her has no idea what variety it might have been...
But the great thing is that it seems to breed true, at least for all the qualities I'm interested in; the plants are low, bushy, reasonably hardy, surviving extreme heat, limited water supply and chilly nights, and produce plenty of fruit that mostly ripens before the end of the season. I can be self-sufficient in fresh tomatoes for a couple of months a year, and the rest of the year I just don't eat them :-p
I learned at my mother's knee that there are some things one should just never buy out of season, because they are not only expensive but flavourless, and tomatoes and strawberries are prime among those. A ripe tomato is a summer treat. A generic 'salad tomato' eaten in February because English salads have tomato in them by default is generally not worth having.