Palestinian Tomato

The Red Fig tomato is an heirloom variety from Philadelphia, dating back to 1805. The tomatoes were traditionally dehydrated to be kept all year long, and eaten as little figs during the winter, hence the name. The fruits are sweet, pear-shaped, and measure about 1 1/2 inch. Package: 30 seeds

Ancient variety of cherry tomato, vigorous and productive. It has a nice little pear shape, 3 cm tall. Very polyvalent with a only little acidity, it can be thrown into salads, cherry tomato mixes, and used as a snack for your little ones!   Package: 30 seeds

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

Determinate. This Italian variety gives plenty of long yellow fruits, very sweet but not too juicy. Perfect for sauces and canning. Do not let its funny name scare you. Package: 30 seeds

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

Indeterminate. Bicolored tomato with large and very sweet marbled fruits. The pink, ferm flesh has very little acidity and has won a number of taste contests in the United States. Yellow fruits blush with red orange colors as they ripen. This heirloom tomato first appeared in New York in 1921 under the name Ruby Gold. It was renamed Gold Medal in 1976 by American seed collector Ben Quisenberry. Daughter not included.   Package: 30 seeds