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~ OUR BULGARIAN TOMATO TRIALS ~

In 2007 Frederick Denny sent us a whole collection of tomatoes he had found in the small village he had moved to in Bulgaria.
He asked around for local varieties that people were saving at home,
and tracked down old gardeners who were maintaining traditional strains in their plots.

The seeds arrived carefully wrapped in small sachets made from old newspaper:

plant picture

and we grew them out in 2008 and 2009 as a preliminary trial.
Since then we have produced some of the better ones for you to try at home and we offer these here.

If you like them do save your own seed as we're not sure when we'll be able to offer them again.

All the tomatoes on this page are tall vines, not bushes.



plant picture'Ruby'
Ruby was a particularly good one which was productive with a good flavour. It made really nice round red tomatoes, slightly ribbed, for a long season.

The vines are medium tall.

Beautiful red tomato from Bulgaria. Seed grown for us this year by our friend Ian Hearn, who runs an organic box scheme.

Order ToRU - 20 seed [OG2] £1.95



plant picture'Cuban Flower'
A traditional variety from Bulgaria (although obviously originally from Cuba!), this is a fantastic large beefsteak tomato.

We had some trouble with the name for this one, as when we first tried to translate it from Cyrillic it came out as 'Cuban Destroyer' , which surely couldn't be right for such a nice tomato!

However Frederick emailed us back to say he thought the name was in fact written differently and we are now sure it is in fact 'Cuban Flower' , which is, after all, much less alarming.

The original was also found by Frederick Denny. Very rare, may never be available again - keep your own seed if you like it.

Order ToCu - 20 seed [OG1] £1.95



plant picture'Rali'
A very attractive tomato from Bulgaria: mid-to-late season, making large numbers of big, smooth and perfectly spherical fruit.

The vines were particularly vigorously green and healthy in our trials, with a high yield.

Again, very rare, you must keep your own seed if you like it as we don't know when we will be able to grow it again.

SOLD OUT FEB 2012



plant pictureOld, old unnamed Bulgarian tomato

An ancient, traditional variety from Bulgaria. Much respected, but no-one seemed to know its name. It was just known as the very old, old tomato.

The plants grow about 5 or 6 large fruit on each truss, each weighing somtimes 1lb or more.

Order ToOO - 16 seed £1.95 [OG1]



plant pictureLong Pink Bulgarian

A traditional variety , with tall vines that make pink tomatoes the shape of a goose egg. From the name, we were expcting them to be a bit longer and thinner than this, but all the plants were the same, so it must be right, and it is a very fine tomato.

The picture was taken with our old camera and it hasn't really shown the colour correctly - the tomatoes are really noticeably pink.

The original seed of this one were given to us by a Bulgarian legal student at a party. We dont remember much more about them, as it was quite a good party.

Order ToLP - 16 seed £1.95 [OG1]



plant pictureBaba

This tall vine makes really large red beefsteaks in quantity. Not especially early, but well worth the wait. Baba means 'grandmother' and this is a traditional family heirloom given to Frederick by an old lady in his village.

These are nice cooking tomatoes & make particularly good rich sauces as well as being good in salads.

Order ToBa - 18 seed £1.95 [OG1]



plant pictureplant picturePointy Heart

Theese tall vines from Bulgaria make large fruit weighing up to 1lb each.

The red tomatoes are fat, with an elongated heart-shape and a drawn-out pointy bottom end, and are particularly good for cooking.

Order ToPH - 16 seed £1.95 [OG1]

Farm cat not included :-)



Saving Tomato Seed:

plant pictureplant pictureplant pictureplant pictureplant pictureplant pictureplant pictureplant pictureplant pictureplant picture

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.



The Real Seed Catalogue is produced by The Real Seed Collection Ltd , a not-for-profit company limited by guarantee.
~ Company No 5924934 ~ VAT No 841181938 ~ DEFRA registered Seed Provider No 7289 ~

Our Unique Guarantee:
We think these are the best seeds you can sow.
We will immediately refund or replace if you are in any way less than delighted with them, even including the flavour of the resulting crop!

Due to daft seed laws, rare veg seeds can only be supplied to members of our Seed Club. Membership costs one penny per annum. When we process your order, you will be charged for
a year's Seed Club Membership if yours is not up to date. For more details see our terms and conditions.

Gardeners Should Save their Own Seed:
Because none of these seeds are hybrids,
you can save your own seed for future use: there's no need to buy new each year.

Saving your own is easy. You will get great seed, and great vegetables adapted to your local conditions.
Do have a go - read the seedsaving instructions we provide with every packet, and also on this site.

~ 33,000 home seed-saving instructions sent out since 2003 ~

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