Banana Leg Tomato

At a Seedy Saturday in 2016, a lady came up to me and told me that her mother-in-law had a tomato variety called Mon Plaisir that stopped being available in seed catalogues for ages, but that she keeps growing year after year. We chat a bit and exchange contact informations. I end up forgetting about it until, a few months later, I receive a letter in the mail. Inside, a beautiful card containing a paper on which a dozen seeds were attached. The seeds of the lost Mon Plaisir tomato. This is what Mrs. Frappier told me when I reached out to her, after receiving her letter: "We use to order our seeds through the WHPerron catalogue, and another company. I think it was called Norseco. We were growing tomatoes in greenhouses in Abitibi, in Matamic close to Lasarre. It was the Frappier greenhouses (serres Frappier) in 1976. We grow a couple seedlings to sell, but it was mostly for vegetable production. I really like those tomatoes, they would make nice long cherry tomato trusses. We stopped producing in the early 2000s, and I had already been saving my own seeds for about 20 to 25 years because we couldn't find the variety in catalogues anymore. I really couldn't find it anywhere. I think it was replaced by either Sweet 100 or Sweet mignonne. I did taste it, but I definitely prefer Mon Plaisir." (Free translation) It is now our turn to share this discovery with you. A huge thanks to the Frappier family for preserving this variety.   Package: 30 seeds

Pink Canabec tomatoes give pink, round, middle-sized fruits. This tomato was developped in 1975 by the agronomist Robert Doucet at the Saint-Hyacinthe Agriculture Research Center. It was created specially to suit Quebec regions' climate. It is therefore a productive, early-yielding variety that's quite compact for an indeterminate tomato.

Package: 30 seeds

Determinate.

Plant approximately 1 meter tall. Round fruits with a diameter of approximately 8 cm. Rare tomato variety. Firm flesh with an exquisite taste. All red tomatoes wish they were Plourde.

 

Grown since 1925 in Saint-Alexandre de Kamouraska, Quebec, by Aurélius Plourde and his family. Handed to Jeannot Pelletier and then to René Paquet. The latter cultivated and selected it before introducing it in Seeds of Diversity Catalog. According to the man who saved this Quebec heirloom : « The Plourde is an old beauty who forgot its own identity ».

The smallest tomato you will ever eat! Currant tomatoes are cousins with the common tomato we all know, both originally from Central and South America. The plants grow clusters of several tiny sweet fruits. The seeds we are selling however have a peculiar story... Léon was a grumpy gardener who didn't like kids. Always a smoke between his lips, he would chase them with the back of his hand whenever they got too close to his parcel in Montreal community garden. Yet the kids couldn't help but want some of his tomatoes, which were shining under the sun just like rubies. Truth be told, Léon didn't really like anyone regardless of age... but how did we love his tomatoes! So, under the full moon (for real!), I sneaked into the garden, and stole a couple seeds. Ever since I've been growing them, and my kids love them!   Package: Around 35-40 seeds  

Dark as the streets of Montreal deep into the night. Early, just as the arrival of winter over Quebec. Easy, to be grown in the field as well as in a pot on a Plateau balcony. Born in our field from a cross between 2 varieties, Black Crime and Teton de Venus, this tomato kept the dark colour of the former and the shape and density of the latter. It however yields much earlier than its parents, and produces much more. The variety is quite stable, but might still display some irregular shapes. We are keeping up our breeding work with the hope of creating a perfect tomato. The fruits are slightly smaller than a tennis ball. Our team carried a taste test and found a ...steak flavour! The foliage is regular, and the plant is not prone to diseases. Package: 35 seeds. Germination rate: 100%

Nice red fruits, almost round, about 10 cm long, but not very regular. Very good taste. The name allegedly comes from the fact that this variety had to withstand hail. These tomatoes were grown by Mr. Guy Bourgeois, a market gardener in Ste-Dorothée (Laval) in the 1950s and 1960s to be sold at the Bonsecours market, an old public market in the Old Montreal. A big thank you to his daughter Suzanne for sharing the seeds. We received them from René Paquet who got them from Antoine D’Avignon, a heirloom seed saving pioneer in Quebec.   Package: Around 35 seeds Picture: Philippe Panassié