Black Tomatoes

My previous two posts have been about tomatoes we are growing this year.  I hope you can bear with me for one more tomato post!  In particular, this post deals with a couple of tomato varieties we are growing that are classified as "black" tomatoes.  

I've always been vaguely aware that there were other colors of tomatoes besides red ones.  Most of the seed catalogs offer yellow ones, stripped ones, even green ones.  However, I usually fast-forwarded through these to the red ones and never give these other varieties much thought.  But, last winter while pouring over one of the seed catalogs, I noticed a cherry tomato called "Black Cherry".  This one gave me reason to pause because it looked just like the Cherokee Purple tomatoes that we grew last year.  

As I read the description of this odd little cherry tomato, I noticed it was in a section of the catalog titled "Black Tomatoes".  And, not only was Cherokee Purple listed there, but there were several varieties of similar coloring with exotic names like Black Krim, Carbon and Japanese Trifele Black. 

After doing a little online research I found that the black tomatoes appear to have originated in Russia and slowly spread to other parts of the world, having originally existed in only a small region on the Crimean Peninsula.  As they spread, they soon began showing up as new varieties in all shapes and sizes.  After some lobbying from me for the Black Cherry tomatoes, we order a couple of these black tomatoes, Cherokee Purple and Black Cherry.  

Although these are referred to as black tomatoes, most of these varieties are more of a maroon or purple-brown color.  In fact, the Cherokee Purples retain their green shoulders while turning a deep, dark red on the bottom.  Because the green never really disappeared, we had a learning curve to determine when they were actually ripe.

Black tomatoes tend to have an earthy sweetness to them and seem less acidic than red tomatoes.  But, you probably won't find them in the supermarket because they are more fragile than the supermarket varieties grown for shipping. So, head down to your local farmers' market to get them.  Or, try growing them yourself.  A packet of seed is cheap compared to the great taste you will enjoy from tomatoes fresh off your own vines.