Rare
heirloom
tomatoes.

We grow this one every single year without fail — and there's a reason. The 4th of July is one of the earliest-producing tomatoes available, ripening 45–50 days after transplanting. In Massachusetts, that means fresh tomatoes by early July while everyone else is still waiting.

The fruits are a deep, classic red and almost perfectly round — the Platonic ideal of what a tomato should look like. Size sits between a cherry and a full slicer at around 3–4 oz, which makes them perfect for salads and snacking.

If you've never grown tomatoes before and want a reliable, early, and beautiful plant — start here.

Black Krim is one of the most celebrated heirloom tomatoes in the world — a variety from the Crimean Peninsula that arrived in the United States around 1990 and immediately won over serious tomato growers.

The skin is a deep brownish-purple with distinctive olive-green shoulders. Slice it open and the interior is dark brick-red, dense, and juicy. It's a dramatic, beautiful tomato that looks unlike anything at a grocery store.

Black Krim is the tomato that converts people. If you've never understood why heirloom tomatoes are worth the fuss, one taste of a ripe Black Krim will explain everything.

Black Beauty holds a legitimate claim to being the darkest tomato in existence. The skin is a striking blue-black — not just dark red, but genuinely deep purple-black — caused by high concentrations of anthocyanin pigments in the outer layer of the fruit.

It won taste tests at the 2015 National Heirloom Exposition, which is not a small thing. That competition takes heirloom tomatoes seriously, and Black Beauty beat some legendary varieties.

This is the tomato that makes people stop and stare at the farmers market. It earns those stares.

Gold Medal has been winning taste tests since 1921. Originally known as "Ruby Gold," it was renamed by heirloom seed preservationist Ben Quisenberry in 1976 — a name that proved prophetic given its ongoing track record in competitions.

The exterior is golden-yellow with a gorgeous ruby-red blush at the blossom end. Slice it open and you get a marbled interior of gold and pink that's almost too beautiful to eat. Almost.

Gold Medal is the variety I recommend most often to people who say they don't like tomatoes. It tends to change their mind.

This is the most scientifically interesting tomato I grow. The Purple Cherry — sold as The Purple Tomato™ by Norfolk Healthy Produce — is not just a purple-skinned tomato. It's purple all the way through the flesh, which is genuinely unusual and required some remarkable plant science to achieve.

Two genes from snapdragon flowers were introduced that act as "on switches," activating the production of anthocyanin pigments throughout the entire fruit — not just the skin. The result is a cherry tomato that's purple from skin to seed.

When people ask me what's the most interesting tomato I grow, this is the answer. Cut one in half and show someone — the reaction is always the same.

Piennolo del Vesuvio has been grown on the slopes of Mount Vesuvius in the Campania region of Italy since ancient times. The volcanic soil — rich in minerals from thousands of years of eruptions — gives these tomatoes a flavor intensity that's genuinely hard to describe without tasting them.

They're small, pointed at the blossom end, with thick skin and very little water content. That concentrated flesh is what makes them extraordinary for cooking — and what makes them store so exceptionally well.

This is one of the rarest varieties I grow. If you've never tried a Piennolo del Vesuvio, this season is your chance.

Oxheart is one of those old heirlooms that never gets the attention it deserves. It's been grown in American gardens since at least the 1920s, and it produces some of the meatiest, most substantial tomatoes I've ever grown.

The shape is distinctive — a large, heart-shaped pink-red fruit that tapers toward the blossom end. Inside, there's almost no seed cavity and very little gel — just dense, meaty flesh all the way through. A single large Oxheart can weigh over a pound.

Oxheart is the tomato I reach for when I want something simple and perfect: a thick slice, good olive oil, flaky salt. That's it.

The origin story of Mortgage Lifter is one of the best in all of gardening. In the 1930s, a radiator repairman in Logan, West Virginia named M.C. "Radiator Charlie" Byles spent six years crossing four giant tomato varieties to create something extraordinary. He then sold plants for $1 each — a significant price during the Depression — until he paid off his $6,000 mortgage. It took him six years.

The tomato is as impressive as the story. Massive, pink-red beefsteak fruits averaging 1–2 lbs, with dense meaty flesh, very few seeds, and a rich, sweet flavor with low acidity.

Mortgage Lifter is the tomato I point to when someone asks what heirloom they should start with. Big, beautiful, delicious, and it comes with the best story in gardening.

Hawaiian Cherry was discovered as a natural sport — a spontaneous genetic mutation — growing among Hawaiian Pineapple tomato plants. It inherited the parent variety's signature characteristic: zero acidity. The flavor is purely sweet and tropical with absolutely no sharpness or tartness.

The fruits are larger than most cherries at about 1 oz, with a warm orange-yellow color when ripe. They taste like candy. This is not an exaggeration.

Hawaiian Cherry is the variety that disappears fastest at my plant sale every year. Don't sleep on it.

Sun Gold is, by most accounts, the best cherry tomato in the world. It was developed by Tokita Seed Company in Japan and has won the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit. In home gardening circles it has achieved something close to legendary status.

The fruits are small golden-orange cherries that ripen in prolific clusters of 10–20. The flavor is extraordinary — deeply sweet with tropical notes and just enough acidity to balance it. People eat them by the handful, straight off the vine, before they ever make it inside.

If you only grow one tomato this season, it should probably be Sun Gold. I grow it every year and I always will.

Rebel Starfighter was created by tomato breeder Russ Crowe — and it looks like nothing else in the garden. Heart-shaped with deep red-purple skin, dramatic black shoulders, and radial lightning-bolt lines running from the stem end down the sides of the fruit. It is, without question, the most visually striking tomato I have ever grown.

The name is perfect. Every time someone sees it for the first time, they stop and ask what it is. I have never once been able to answer without watching someone's face change.

Rebel Starfighter is the tomato I grow for the story and the spectacle — and every year it delivers on both counts. This is a limited variety. If you want one, book early.