Origin of the Cherokee Purple
This variety rose to popularity after a friend and fellow gardener, JD Green, sent the seeds of a curious purple tomato to tomato man Craig LeHoullier in 1990. Green said the seeds were for a purple tomato given to his neighbor’s family by the Cherokee Indians, who had been growing it for about a hundred years. LeHoullier was skeptical about the purple color as most so-called purple varieties up to that point usually were more of a pink.
Remarkably, the tomato grown from the mysterious seeds was indeed a purplish dusky rose color (not pink). Not only was the color of the newly discovered tomato fascinating, but the flavor was delightful! LeHoullier named the tomato Cherokee Purple and listed it in the Seed Savers Exchange yearbook (a place where avid seed Savers Exchange their treasured heirloom seed varieties). And as they say, the rest is History.
Cherokee Purple on the Urban Farm
In 2020, when we grew our first garden here on the Urban Farm, I found Cherokee Purple at a local nursery. It was one of the few Heirloom varieties being sold. I’d heard the name and knew it came highly recommended, so I decided to give it a try. I had high hopes for my tomatoes that first year and unfortunately was disappointed by the sub par flavor and appearance of most of the varieties I grew. I was convinced that Cherokee Purple was overrated. It was slower than I, not having grown tomatoes myself before, had anticipated.
Towards the end of August we were getting ready to leave on vacation and one of the meals I had packed was hamburgers. As an afterthought, I grabbed a couple tomatoes off the Cherokee Purple plants and threw them in the cooler. Several days later at a park in Mt Vernon WA after numerous misadventures, we got out our camp stove to cook up those hamburgers.
Not expecting to be impressed, I sliced up a Cherokee Purple tomato. It was definitely pretty! We sat down to eat the burgers and boy were we in for a treat! The tomatoes tasted amazing…you didn’t even want ketchup on the burgers because the tomato flavor was so rich, sweet, and intense. My husband, who is not generally impressed by tomatoes, was astounded. We have been growing Cherokee Purple ever since. Most years, it out produces every other variety in our garden. And when it comes to flavor, we have yet to find a comparable variety.
