Have you ever had tomato plants that required a step ladder to harvest them? Me either!! Until we rolled in this high tunnel and grew our first round of completely protected tomato plants! I learned this year just how fussy the true personality of a tomato plant is. They love to be completely protected from the elements. No wind or rain touched these plants and they were so healthy and still producing buds up until late October in Zone 4. Unheard of!! We did end up taking them down “early”, as in late October, because they were just so massive we were unable to walk down rows. It was also only a matter of time before the cold and the frost snuck in and took them totally out. We created a little video of the removal process. Click the image below to watch.

This year we grew sixteen varieties of heirloom tomatoes!! From paste, to cherry, to plum, to slicers.

• Aker’s Plum

• Cow’s Tit

• Mia’s Italian Paste

• Long Tom

• Sweet Apertif

• Amethyst Cream

• Coytoe

• Sungold Select

• Dark Tiger

• Black Beauty

• Bill Bean

• Atkinson

• Lynn of Jones County

• Nelson’s Golden Giant

• Sasha’s Altai

• Red Rocket

My personal favorite was the Amethyst Cream. The largest tomatoes we grew was for sure Bill Bean. We had one that weighed in at 4 pounds!! Our customer favorite was Black Beauty!!