Storage Tomato

Two weeks post harvest

"Long Keeper" Storage Tomato

I came across a tomato that I thought some of you might enjoy if you haven’t already tried it. The Long Keeper tomato intrigued me because its claim to fame is that you could store this fruit through the fall and into the winter, without compromising the taste, just by picking it ripe and storing it on your kitchen counter. If you have ever put a ripe tomato on your counter, you know you could expect a couple of weeks before it goes bad, but not a couple of months!

Long Keeper was introduced by W. Atlee Burpee in 1891. It was developed by a famed plant breeder by the name E. S. Carman. He came up with the variety by the process of elimination. It took him 12-13 years to make his selection.

He started by growing all kinds of popular varieties of the time. He picked six fruit from each variety that were the largest, shapeliest form and red all on the same day. These were kept in a dark room until all were more or less decayed. From the last one to decay, he selected seeds, which were planted the next year. Careful selections were made every subsequent year, always with a view to increasing their long keeping qualities, uniformity in shape, earliness in ripening, as well as the productiveness of the vines.

I decided to try to grow Long Keeper a few years ago. It couldn’t be found in the plant form so I started mine from some seeds I bought from Burpee. I found out the germination was high. The seedlings grew extremely well and were easy to grow.

The fruit produced in about 80 days after transplanting outside in their permanent spot. When harvested, we found that other tomatoes tasted better, but they still tasted good. They were not the 6oz fruit that were predicted, but 3oz, with some being closer to 4oz size. I expected this because of the Colorado climate. They had a thick skin. I feel because of the thicker skin they kept a long time.

I did put some on the counter, not to be eaten, but to see how long they would keep. The ones on the counter lasted for 8 weeks and started to shrivel. They still tasted good.

I also had some in the unheated garage at a cooler temperature to see if that made a difference. The ones in the garage lasted until Thanksgiving when it got too cold. They were starting to shrivel about that time anyways. 12 weeks is still a long time!!

On the counter 8 weeks!

Long Keeper is a great heirloom tomato that I will always have in my garden!! Other varieties of storage tomatoes include Red October, Garden Peach, Reverend Morrows, and Irish Eyes Long Keeper.

If some of you have grown a storage tomato, please let me know. I value your input.

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