Just because you have never seen a purple tomato, it does not mean that the purple tomato does not exist. Yes, maybe we are not so used to any other color of tomatoes beside red. However, there are varieties of tomatoes that are green, yellow, orange and even purple. The purple tomato or also known as the Cherokee Purple Tomato. This tomato is not as common as its red siblings. You may not even able to find it at the supermarkets near you. The Cherokee Purple tomato is surely unusual with its deep purple color.
The Cherokee purple tomato gains its popularity because it is among the first tomato varieties that comes in a darker shade of color and can be said to be in the black color group. But that is not the main factor of its popularity. In fact, its popularity comes from the purple tomato’s taste. This tomato variety is known to be having a very dense meat and juicy texture. It has small seed locules that are scattered irregularly throughout the fruit flesh. The color of the interior of purple tomato is also slightly darker compared to the other tomato varieties.
The Cherokee Purple Tomatoes were first cultivated by a man named Craig LeHoullier. He claimed that this tomato is actually originated among the Cherokee people and is over a century old. Craig received a package of the Cherokee Purple Tomato seeds in the 1990 from a man named John Green. A note that came along with the package indicated that John wanted to share this new variety of tomato with him and that this tomato was not yet named. He also wrote that the seeds came to him and he was pleasantly surprised to see that the tomatoes were unlike any other as they are purple. It was a neighbor of John who gave him the seeds and that the neighbor received the seeds from another Cherokee Indian neighbor decades ago.
The Cherokee Purple tomato is one of the heirloom tomato varieties. The plants are able to grow up to 9 feet tall and that they will mature in 80 days. They are extraordinary because their colors stand up in the crowd of other tomatoes and they also have the beefsteak shape that is a common shape of the heirloom tomatoes. The Cherokee Purple tomato is one of the larger size tomatoes as they can weight 16 oz in average and often there are larger ones.
