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applestar
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Grandma Viney's Yellow and Pink

Grandma Viney's Pink and Yellow was one of the varieties TZ sent me seeds for a while back.
I hate to admit that I finally got around to growing it this year. :oops:

We just had this first one at dinner. I forgot to weigh it before cutting it up, but it did have quite a bit of catfacing going on and I had to cut away a significant portion of corky skin... But I still had this much edible fruit left and what GORGEOUS COLORS! I have never seen anything like it. :o
Streaked Skin side
Streaked Skin side
Bi-color inside
Bi-color inside
The thing is, it had hardly any seed cavity and hardly any seeds in the cavities there were. In other words, this tomato is almost all meat. The skin WAS hard and I peeled it off -- slipped right off as ripe as this was.
...and the flavor? DELICIOUS! Refreshing mixture of tangy and sweet, mouthwatering with no acid after bite. Very good eaten by itself, not even a bit of salt.

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applestar
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I found the before harvesting picture 8)
Grandma Viney's Pink and Yellow just before harvesting
Grandma Viney's Pink and Yellow just before harvesting

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gixxerific
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A truly beautiful tomato. I had seed fro TZ as well that I finally grew last year. It was a HUGE plant with LOTS of awesome fruit like yours. But it didn't like my heat and almost all the fruit split real bad. I blame the weather, it could have been a great plant. The taste was most desirable, and production was good with big fruit. I should try it again.

Gardener123
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Scale of 1 to 10, how prolific is it as far as bearing fruit? Heirloom tomatoes, and I guess that is one, are so hit and miss..... I am like 50 - 50 this season as far as quality tomato plants so far.... Next year I will be looking for heavy fruit bearers..... This might make my list if it is a big fruit bearer!

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applestar
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That was the first fruit. It's in my "Very Late" section of tomato seeds binder so I started it in mid-late Feb.
I'll take a closer look at the plant later on today and see how many fruits it has, bit it IS planted in a less sun section of the garden -- probably no direct sun until around 1PM and then the sunset is obscured by the trees so maybe until 7PM?

TZ -OH6
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I think it has the longest name of any I've come across.

As far as production, it was average-high for me, grown on a 7-8 ft stake. I'm guessing that if Brandywine would give me 16-20 fruit in a full caged plant, GVPY would be in the 25 fruit range. So I probably got half of that on a staked plant.

I don't know how it would be year to year.

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gixxerific
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I tell it would be worth trying again. It was so hot last year, and the stinkbug invasion didn't help. They were cracking last year and that really drew in the bugs. Too bad it was a very tasty fruit. But as you say next year could be spectacular. It happens I see it all the time.

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applestar
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I have two more fruits ripening in the kitchen. :()

It will be interesting to compare flavors with Casey's Pure Yellow, Nature's Riddle, Pineapple Pig, and possibly Beauty King (just harvested do it may not be ready).

TZ -OH6
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I grew one of the 'Beauties' same year as GVYP. I forget if it was King or Queen ... very pretty but after tasting a few to be sure of the unappealing flavor I threw the rest in the bushes for the fluit fries. Still, it was better than store bought.

Most bicolors are watery so I don't bother trying to make sauce with them. GVYP wasn't.

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applestar
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Yesterday's taste comparison involving Grandma Viney's didn't turn out so well. For some reason, the fruit tasted was not very flavorful -- maybe it was picked after a rain or something?

TZ -OH6
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I stopped using early season fruits for taste tests because they don't have the flavor of late August fruits. I suspect it has something to do with heavy fruit set on small plants here, but could be any number of factors. My late season pre-frost fuit are also bland.

Varieties are also inconsitent place to place and soil to soil. I have yet to taste a Cherokee Purple that was exceptional, and after I put down a lot of Muriate of Potash one year I started getting citrussy flavors in my brandywines. There is also personal olfactory variation. I used to own an orchid cultivar that I swore had no scent, and then a room full of people told me it was filling the room with fragrance. I had many other plants of the same species that I could detect very strongly.

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gixxerific
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TZ -OH6 wrote: Varieties are also inconsitent place to place and soil to soil. I have yet to taste a Cherokee Purple that was exceptional
Funny you say that. I had Beauty Queen last year, you said you didn't like it, mine were in the top ten out of 100 or so variety's. A time and place for everything. Jaypoc has seed from me which plants are making me look silly. 8) A time and place...



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