The Most Interesting Tomato Plant of the Month! August 2023

Weekend Haul (Partial)

I don't always grow tomato plants. Wait, that's a lie. I've been growing tomato plants every summer for 25-years straight. So, I guess my message to you should be: Grow Tomatoes, My Friends.

The photo to your immediate right? That represents my big weekend activity for the month of August. I'm either collecting ripe tomatoes to make gobs upon gobs of canned tomato sauce (with the bite of Jalapeño peppers I might add), OR I'm throwing them into bags and BEGGING my neighbors to take them.

This is the moment in August where heirloom tomato production is positively off the hook. It's not over yet. There are three times as many green tomatoes on the plants that I harvested from today than those that show the color of absolute peak heirloom ripeness. This means another month, or even two, of heirloom tomato harvests. This is, of course, provided the weather holds out.

Cold nights can screw up an heirloom tomato harvest. The tomatoes still turn a pleasing color of red, pink, yellow, orange or whatever variety you are choosing to grow. But sustained cool temperatures at night can play havoc with that heirloom taste.

Tomato of the Month

The nights, unfortunately, have been getting a bit cooler recently. It's not cold yet. But it's near the end of August, which means cold weather isn't very far off. It hasn't affected the taste yet. Today's serving of the giant pink monsters known as Marianna's Peace (MP) were positively off the hook. But, I do worry.

Although I could easily give the August title to MP, or any one of a number of other heirloom producers, I've saved this singular honor for a new variety that popped up in my garden this year. It's called Bread and Salt. It has been an absolute pleasure to grow and the production has been rather outstanding.

This is not a new variety. Not by any stretch of the imagination. It is somewhat new to the United States. But, in the heart of Mother Russia, this variety is well known. I can only tell you that the seeds for this variety did, in fact, come from Russia. I'm not sure exactly where, since this variety is apparently grown all over the Eastern European continent. I'm not at all surprised.

Bread and Salt

Bread and Salt is what tomato growers call an "oxheart" variety. It is a very large oxheart variety. How big? As big as my big, fat hand. Perhaps even bigger. I was blessed with two Bread and Salt starter plants this year. I gave one away and planted the other. I didn't give it much thought beyond that. I didn't know what to expect out of this variety because it's not one I had been expecting to receive as a starter plant.

This heirloom tomato variety may be called Bread and Salt. But it doesn't taste like that. The name, however, is symbolic. It is a Russian custom to provide gifts of bread and salt, which acts as a symbol of good health and fortune. A Bread and Salt variety grown in any fresh tomato garden is certainly going to bring those very good benefits. This is one good tomato. It's meaty. It's tasty. That zing of tartness is in every bite.

This plant doesn't get very large. Maybe four feet tall? That's the size of many standard determinate varieties. There's nothing wrong with determinate varieties. Any vine-ripened tomato is good eating. But most determinate varieties aren't worth writing home about in my opinion. Bread and Salt is different. My plant started producing in mid July and hasn't stopped. New tomatoes continue to form with every passing week, which means this plant won't play out until Mother Nature puts a stop to all summer garden production with one of her patented cold snaps.

Bread and Salt Tomato

I made sure to include a few ripened Bread and Salt whoppers in my canned tomato sauce creations this year. Bread and Salt tomatoes have found their way into more garden salads than I can count. I give as much of them away as I possibly can, without wearing out my welcome as a "good" neighbor. It's just one of those reliable heirloom varieties that you can count upon in any summer vegetable garden.

I can't make any promises, but it may show up in another future garden at some point. It certainly deserves another chance or two after the show this variety put on this year. I just thought you should know about it. It is, without a doubt, the most interesting tomato plant of the month!