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75 days. Intermediate. Regular Leaf.
This tomato was found by Clifton Hedrick (Kentucky) in a field of Cherokee Purple plants, 1 out of 1000! Cherokee Purple Cherry is a super tasty sport of the well known Cherokee Purple tomato. A mid-sized, round cherry tomato with deep-purple fruits. This beauty has purple flesh with green gel. Delicious cherry tomato.
Chris Smith reached out to Teressa Smith (no relation) of Terranova Farms, knowing that Terressa stewards thousands of tomato varieties in Mocksville, North Carolina. Chris asked for recommendations on varieties that she thought would do well in Western North Carolina and she sent 32 options in the mail! Utopian Seed Project grew out all the varieties in an informal screening trial in 2023. They were planted without irrigation in pretty rough new ground. Definitely not the ideal tomato growing conditions.
All the tomatoes were ranked for taste and for health at the end of the season. Cherokee Purple Cherry still looked vigorous and healthy at the end of the season and had impressed many palettes with its burst of sweet delicious flavor. The Utopian Seed Project grew them again in 2024, this time in a greenhouse. They actually weren’t as impressive or delicious until we turned off the irrigation and stopped pampering them. This year, they were returned to the field where they are happiest!
Anne Grier, Gaining Ground Farm, Leicester, NC
Anne Grier collaboratively runs Gaining Ground Farm in Leicester, NC, with her husband, children, and several seasonal employees. The farm produces vegetables for sale with a focus on heirloom varieties and has a keen interest in seed saving. Seed saving and sharing offer a connection to the past and the future and to each other in a way that feels really important and good to her.
