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~ BUSH TOMATO Seed ~ We like tomatoes a lot, so this is a really important part of the catalogue for us. We think much of the tomato seed offered commercially isn't really right for home growers. What we want are varieties that germinate well in cold conditions, start to set fruit early, and yet are still very productive over a long period, with a really good 'tomato' flavour. Vine tomatoes are on another page. For an explanation of the differences between bush & vine plant types, click here. SUPER-EARLY BUSH TOMATOES: We have found some very quick-growing varieties, many from Russia. In our trials these had flowered before our others had grown their third leaf! Not only does this help get a better crop in a short summer, but you have more chance of them fruiting before blight strikes. We have listed these in order of ripening. As always, the earlier varieties have a slightly smaller yield. Grow more than one to cover a longer season. Aurora (Early sauce type) This one comes originally from Siberia. Not only very early, it also germinates well at low temperatures. The slightly flattened red fruit are bigger than the Latah below, so it starts to fruit about 6 days later, but you get a higher yield and the plants are more manageable. More of a paste-type with thicker flesh, this one is particularly good for cooking down into a rich sauce. Medium-large bushes don't sprawl so much but do need a little bit of support - perhaps a 2ft cane to tie it to. Good juicy fruit, excellent flavour. 2-3oz red fruit. Mmmmm! Bush Order ToAU - 25 seed [OG1] £1.49 Latah (Super-early Salad type) One of our favourite tomatoes. Our super-early variety that tolerates short or cool summers, with 1" spherical red fruit on a sprawling bush. The leaves are very far-spaced on the stem - the plants look a bit odd - but of course this lets in more light to reach the fruit so they ripen even earlier! Not only early, but also really tasty, with a good balance of acid and sweetness, this is just great. Absurdly early red tomato. Sprawling bush, but can also be grown as a vine. Order ToLA - 20 seed [OG1] £1.75     FEEDBACK: We originally thought this was from Russia, but several people have written to correct us. It seems that somewhere along the line someone got Moscow, Idaho, USA and Moscow, Russia mixed up. Among others, Bonnie Gomez wrote: "The Latah Tomato is not from Russia. It was developed in Latah County at the University of Idaho in Moscow, Idaho in the United States. We have a short growing season (just over 4 months of the year) in Northern Idaho and have unpredictable springs (i.e. frost and snow) and that's why "absurdly early" plants seem like a good idea! Thank you! " Urbikany (Early salad type) - SORRY, SOLD OUT Another great variety from our trials of early tomatoes, this one has a high yield of 2-inch, perfectly round red fruit. Large seed get the plants off to a vigorous start. They are ready about a week later than Aurora, but then they're bigger and juicier - and this is still much earlier than normal tomatoes. The large sprawling bushes only grow about 3' tall, but definitely need several stakes to support the weight of all the tomatoes. A dual-purpose tomato, good for cooking and salads, as it has thick flesh but is also quite juicy. Normally we collect fruit from our trial plants into little bowls, but with this one we had to go back and get two buckets! Enormous yields of fruit with good flavour and lots of juice. 2" spherical red fruit. Tall Bush. Some of this years seed was kindly grown for us by Barbara Morrison. Order ToUR - SORRY, SOLD OUT Grushovka (Early dual-use type) This is a really good producer of big pink tomatoes - halfway between a plum and an ox-heart type - with an excellent flavour. Compact plants grow to around 3 or 4 foot tall and are easy to manage. The heart-shaped fruit are shocking pink. A bit like a plum tomato - good for sauces, but also very pretty in salads, or for making a lurid pink gazpacho soup. Medium sized blocky fruit, very tasty . Tall Bush Order ToGR - 30 seed [OG1] £1.60 ~ MAINCROP BUSH TOMATOES ~ Our very own 'Lettuce Leaf' Bush Cooking Tomato Back in 2002 we noticed one very peculiar seedling in a huge plot of Urbikany plants under trial. This had very different leaves from all the other tomatoes we had ever grown. Rather than pulling it up, we let it be just to see what would happen. It soon got bigger, and bigger . . . Eventually we had a vast bush, all covered with dark green, 'lettucy' leaves, which then set a silly number of medium-sized red round tomatoes. We just kept picking them and picking them! In our tasting sessions, we decided it wasn't really a salad tomato (though you could use it that way) , but a very productive cooker. The fruit are quite juicy, so not ideal for thick sauces, but very nice for cold gazpacho soup for example (tomato, cucumber, green pepper, garlic, bread, oil, vinegar, water and ice-cubes all blended together). Anyways, this is unique. We've grown it every year since and it seems perfectly stable and equally productive, though we've no idea where the original seed came from. Probably somewhere in Siberia (where the Urbikany comes from) there are fields of it! Do have a go, you shouldn't be disappointed. Order TOLE - 30 seed [OG1] £1.49 Dragotzennost or Valuable Jewel (Large early sauce type) This is a good mid-early sauce type, given to us by Bill Minkey, who has a collection of 640+ tomatoes. We asked him for his best producing early or mid-season sauce tomato for the UK climate, and this is what he sent. It is a heavy-setting large bush, and you'll definitely need some stakes to support the weight of all the tomatoes. The fruit themselves are about 2 -3 inches across, and have a very slightly blocky shape, with thin skin. It did very well in our trials last year. Note that it is not a salad tomato - but it makes really very good sauces and ketchup. Order ToDR - 30 seed [OG1] £1.50 Note: We have recently discovered that the name means 'valuable jewel' in Bulgaria, where it comes from. Odessa This is a nice early bush tomato from Odessa in the Ukraine. The seed was given to us by Jeff Nekola (who also does some heavy-duty pepper breeding work) from his collection of early and particularly tasty tomatoes. We liked this one because the bushes are quite compact, yet the harvest is heavy and early, with very juicy and sweet fruit. The tomatoes are strongly ribbed and look as though they've slightly over-filled with juice.   Order ToOD - 30 seed [OG1] £1.50   Saving Tomato Seed: Here you can seed the seed and juice squeezed into a jar & let ferment for 3 days (no more, no less!) Good seeds sink and bad ones float. (And, yes, it is supposed to be mouldy & smelly) Water is added and poured off several times to clean them, the seed is rinsed in a sieve and put on a plate to dry. Detailed seed-saving instructions are included with your seeds, so you can do this yourself. And of course this is only possible because these are all real, non-hybrid varieties.