Blush Tomatoes

[ChristinaJo]

I have been seeing this variety come up time and time again....

Those of you that grow it, what does it taste like? What kind of recipes do they taste best in.

Just thinking about ordering it, but want some "kitchen" feedback first. Thanks

[KarenO]

Blush is a pretty elongated yellow cherry with pink/blush stripes. It was bred recently by Fred Hempel who you will find here on tomatoville. Like most cherries it is best eaten fresh out of hand or in salads. I don't generally cook cherry sized tomatoes myself. here's what it looks like. this photo was copied off the internet as mine are not ripe yet to show the color:

[ChristinaJo]

It sure does have the visual appeal! Nice pic.

[FarmerShawn]

The flavor is extra "fruity." I like them a lot. The plants produce prolifically for me. I had some extra ripe tomatoes, so I dehydrated some - they were fantastic! One neighbor compared them to dried apricots, because the flavor was so intense and fruity. I love 'em!

[Tom Wagner]

I am glad to see some posts about Blush. I picked up a single plant of it recently and potted it up in a nutrient rich potting media to get it to bloom and provide pollen for crosses. I made about ten crosses in the last couple of days to all kinds of colors of tomatoes. Now that I read some positive reports...I might revisit the variety to make more crosses. I have made 480 contingency crosses...86 female parents and about that many male parents. I have not used Blush as a female parent and was wondering what to cross it with. I was thinking of a blue stripe tomato. Ideas?

Ten years ago I gave Fred quite a few breeding lines of tomatoes...and stripes were indeed part of the inventory. I wonder if Fred used one or more of my lines in the pedigree of Blush?

[travis]

Originally Posted by Tom Wagner

I have not used Blush as a female parent and was wondering what to cross it with. I was thinking of a blue stripe tomato. Ideas?

While Blush's super flavorful input certainly would improve the flavor of any blue tomatoes out there, the only thing I can think of that might improve Blush on the other hand would be some crack resistance.

[Fred Hempel]

There are 3 main genetic contributors to Blush: Black Cherry, Speckled Roman and Northern Lights.

However, Blush is not the simple result of two subsequent crosses, and simple selection after that. It is the result of crossing, re-crossing and very careful selections. But, I am pretty sure that these three varieties contribute most, if not all, of the genes in Blush.

Parental genetics is important, but in my experience brutal selection for flavor, and a few crosses between the best working lines one has might be even more important. If I have 1000 F2 plants in the field, I might continue work with 3-5 truly exceptional plants, and that work often includes using those plants in crosses (often to each other) almost immediately.

Tom,

I greatly enjoyed our conversation -- probably 10 years ago now.

The handful of lines I got directly from you were orange and pink lines with cool tolerance and bruise resistance, because at that time most of my breeding was for cool tolerance (because I was in the colder parts of the Bay Area).

Your Green Zebra, however was a main contributor to Lucinda (which Carolyn mentions) and Spike (which has a "black zebra" phenotype). I am trying to do re-selections on both of these lines so we can sell seeds of them this winter. It was Spike that really got the ball rolling with regard to our breeding.

Originally Posted by Tom Wagner

I am glad to see some posts about Blush. I picked up a single plant of it recently and potted it up in a nutrient rich potting media to get it to bloom and provide pollen for crosses. I made about ten crosses in the last couple of days to all kinds of colors of tomatoes. Now that I read some positive reports...I might revisit the variety to make more crosses. I have made 480 contingency crosses...86 female parents and about that many male parents. I have not used Blush as a female parent and was wondering what to cross it with. I was thinking of a blue stripe tomato. Ideas?

Ten years ago I gave Fred quite a few breeding lines of tomatoes...and stripes were indeed part of the inventory. I wonder if Fred used one or more of my lines in the pedigree of Blush?

[Fred Hempel]

Tom,

I didn't know Banana Legs was yours, although it is certainly not a surprise. So, the stripes are originally from you (via John Swenson and SSE).

I think the flavor of Blush is a unique combination of parental flavors, but no one has ever guessed one of the parents based on flavor (to my knowledge).

I crossed GZ X Silvery Fir Tree to get Lucinda and Spike.

I don't have a seed increase from the 2 (or 3, I can't remember) lines I got from you. I will see if I still have them, and if I do I will grow them again and send seeds.

Fred

[Tom Wagner]

Thanks, Fred, for the updates on the seed I gave you and what the pedigree of those two recent lines..Lucinda and Spike.

I have Green Grape x Silvery Fir Tree breeding lines....but I let them go as far as priority since 9 years ago...they were highly susceptible to late blight when I had hundreds of them next to my potato projects. I should take the time to dust off the seed packets of those and regrow them. Most of my Silvery Fir Tree breeding lines are in clones like Cotton Candy and others.

Looking back at how new varieties got started...Banana Legs, via Striped Roman and Green Zebra sure have had a way to find wiggle room within lots of striped tomatoes. Both Banana Legs and Green Zebra are related in perhaps 25% of the ancestry.

[ChristinaJo]

I bet most people don't think about all the work it takes to develop new varieties.
Go to store, pick up plant,put in dirt,water, pick.

I will be honest, and admit, I am guilty too.....

Thanks to all the gardeners and breeders that take the time to do it.


Cooking info:

So, I have it that it's great dried, fresh, how about roasted or sauced?

[Fred Hempel]

Tom,

Did all your striped varieties start with a single striped variety?

[Fred Hempel]

Whenever people ask what one of our tomatoes can be used for, this song runs through my head....

Covered wagon medicine show
Take you to the place where the healing flows
Weak in spirit, we got the FRUITS
Won't save your soul, it'll shine your shoes
Treated king to kangaroo
Santa Fe to Timbuktu
Don't be fooled by imitation
This is the BLUSH that cured a nation
We took the tube and the high plains too
Never stopped long, just passing through
A drop of the laughter of the maids of France
Makes a hopeless cripple dance
It was really vile weather when we got to tarred and feathered
You could hear the six guns sound as they chased us out of town
In India we're all the rave
Discovered that it's great as aftershave
Dropped in the sea, just off Japan
Swapped 20 PINTS for an aqua-walkman
Immunity from ridicule
Improves your brains if you're a fool
And I read in the Middle East, they traded some for a hostage release
Now if you're bald it'll give you hair
If you got straight trousers it'll give you flares
Feeling up, you'll get depressed
Out of style, here's a brand new dress
The BLUSH we sell is just the best
Passing all consumer test
Days of heaven, nights of sin
Voodoo stick and sharks fin
When all around you seems like hell, just one BLUSH will make you well
Multipurpose in a TOMATO
If you ain't I'll it'll fix your TABLE
In days of yore for all bad feelings
Washing socks and stripping ceilings
Nowadays it's used medicinally for all known human malady


Lyrics from Medicine Show. Big Audio Dynamite (with a few small word changes)

[ChristinaJo]

Yes, I'd say that about covers it

[remy]

I thought I posted yesterday, but I must not of hit submit. Anyway, I'm growing Blush this year, because the last year at the Buffalo~Niagara Tomato Tastefest, it was such a hit. I really loved it. It had a lot of votes for sweetest and best though it did not win.
I still have only green fruit so I can't comment on anything else yet.
Remy

[Tom Wagner]

Did all your striped varieties start with a single striped variety?

I had played around with Tigerella for quite a few years during the fifties and sixties, I used it in breeding and I think the only line I kept growing was one I called Cherry Stripe. It did not contribute much in the way of stripe and is still hard to see on the fruit. I am increasing Cherry Stripe. This has been in limbo for the last 40 years.

I was always on the lookout for new varieties to use in breeding. Case in point.... when I walked through the gene bank/tomato seed increase field near Ames , Iowa sometime during the mid sixties I found one plant in the accessions row that was different than the same seed block. It has faint stripes and I asked the superintendent to collect a single fruit.

I grew it but it was even as good as Tigerella, but after crossing it with different lines and segregating the seed lines I was able to get better striping patterns. Seems something happened in my breeding work...I was getting wide ranges of striping patterns...5% stripes to over 80% stripes. Seems I wanted the 60% pattern most of all and many of the breeding lines I had during the early 70's were derived from one or more of these new types/mutations. Those early lines included Banana Fingers...which probably was the one renamed Banana Legs by John Swenson of The Historic Wagner Farm in Illinois...no relation....Green Nails, Green Bell, Schimmeig Stoo, Schimmeig Creg, Green Zebra, Elberta Girl and more.

I called the gene gs for green stripe and I think I called it that before I knew that the gene was officially called that. Somehow my gs lines became more pronounced either in con★★★★★★★★ with other genes on the same chromosome, I don't know exactly what. It does appear that with early trials of my tomatoes starting with 1979 and especially with the 1983 release of my Tater Mater Seed catalog....that most, if not all, of the stripes you see today are from my original strains or crosses such as Striped Roman, Black Zebra, Copi, Berkeley Tie Die, etc.

BTW, I used Blush and Roman Candle in crosses today and to each other. I noticed the foliage of both are very similar to my Banana Legs..this being an ancestor to both.

I crossed Blush to Starfire Isis today. I wonder if one of my lines is coursing throught the blood of this tomato as well....here is a picture of it..



Might make a good hybrid and/or start of new recombinations for a new OP.