The Most Interesting Tomato Plant of the Month! August

Garden Protector at Work

I don't always grow tomatoes. But when I do, I grow the fattest, most colorful and tastiest of heiroom tomatoes! And this year, thanks to that creature pictured to the right, I'm enjoying a banner harvest for the first time in years.

That's right! Heirloom tomato season is now officially underway in these parts. The plants are literally producing so many tomatoes at the moment that I'm literally begging neighbors to take them from me.

In the past, I might have tried to can some of this bounty for winter use. I do have recipes for numerous tomato sauces. I've done it before. But, so far, the energy just eludes me. Most of my time is spent harvesting, packaging and delivering this enormous haul to neighbors here, there and everywhere.

Kellogg's Breakfast

Which brings us to the most interesting tomato plant of the month. It's August. This is the month of heirloom tomato production in California. In past years? An army of rats would have decimated this garden by now. The only pictures that I could show at this point in the garden season were photos of heirloom tomatoes that were half eaten, covered with aphids and other bugs, and just plain spoiled.

But that isn't the case in 2022. Mango, the kitten rescue procured from the Sacramento Bradshaw Shelter has somehow managed to keep the ravenous rat army, every last one of them, at bay. I haven't lost a single tomato to a rat raid. There are no rat raids. No other wildlife raids either. The creatures who feasted on previous garden efforts last year, the year before that and even the year before that, are avoiding the garden like it's some sort of plague.

Which is just fine by me.

1.5 lbs.!

The most interesting tomato plant of the month is a variety I've grown before, but never enjoyed the bounty of a harvest like this one. This variety is called Kellogg's Breakfast. It is considered to be one of the finest open-pollinated tomato plants ever developed. It received it's name, not from the makers of Kellogg's Breakfast Cereals, but a railroad supervisor by the name of Darrell Kellogg.

This variety hails from West Virginia, but Kellogg helped to popularize it from his gardens located in Redford, Michigan. The food editors at Sunset Magazine declared it as one of the best heirloom tomato varieties ever developed, and legendary heirloom grower Carolyn Male made sure to list Kellogg's Breakfast in her time-honored garden bible called 100 Heirloom Tomatoes for the American Garden.

Heirloom Tomatoes

This variety was christined with the name of "breakfast tomato" because of its unique and outstanding orange flesh and orange colored juice. It is simply one of the sweetest varieties you will ever have the pleasure of tasting, and just one of these tomatoes can fill up a standard serving bowl once it's been sliced into delicious, mouthwatering chunks. It's also a favored slicing tomato that's been known to cover more than a few Bacon, Lettuce and Tomato sandwiches.

Kellogg's Breakfast is one of those few late-season rewards that heirloom tomato growers dream about all winter and spring. The season is never quite long enough, no matter how productive the plant might be. These fruits easily top 1 lb. and a few might even tip the scales at 2 lbs. or more. It's not a perfectly round tomato. No heirloom really is. Most heirloom tomatoes look like garden nightmares. Kellogg's Breakfast is no different. It's lumpy, bumpy and just plain good.

YUM!

The garden is producing lots of tomatoes like this at the moment. So much so that choosing a "tomato variety of the month" proved to be difficult. There are others in that garden of mine who are attempting to knock Kellogg's Breakfast off its lofty perch, but that is a tough task for an heirloom delicacy like this one.

Grow Tomatoes, my friends.