Good thread of suggestions. I think he has access to common and easily acquire tomato seeds through the garden swap. I hope to find something unique.

Tomato Grow List for 2013 - Discussion

For something unique, Bon, I'd send him seeds of one of the blue tomatoes. They mostly don't stay blue but have some blue-ish to purple-ish coloring. Indigo Rose is one I've grown. Its flavor is not special....just typical hybrid tomato flavor, but it isn't bad. Even the foliage has blue tones, especially on new leaves, and the color of the fruit blows people away.I've linked a page below that offers several blues.

Or, for a tomato with a beautiful appearance, almost any of Brad Gates' Wild Boar Farms varieties will fit the bill. I am partial to WBF's Michael Pollan (a yellow and green striped one) and Pink Berkeley Tie-Dye. Orange tomatoes are different and some have great flavor. Nebraska Wedding has done well for me, and I'm going to try Jumbo Jim in 2014. Porter produces small pear-shaped pink tomatoes and it produces well in heat. I could make suggestions all day. I'd send him an heirloom variety and avoid sending him a red, hybrid type since they all are more or less the same. If he hasn't grown many yellow tomatoes, he might enjoy trying Lemon Boy or Ildi (a cherry type with superb flavor). I could suggest 1,000 more. To find tomato varieties that are a little different, go to Victory Seeds website and look at their old Livingston tomatoes. I especially love Magnus and Paragon from that group, although all of them grow well for me and taste great. Or, at the website of Marianne's Heirloom Seeds (mariseeds.com), you're bound to find a whole lot of tomatoes that no one has ever heard of. I've been buying some of her less well-known seeds in recent years.

For very reliable, true-to-type heirlooms, anything from Glecker Seedmen will be superb, and the prices of seed packets at Sample Seed Shop are superb. Everything I've purchased there from Remy has done great for me.

Seeds are available for thousands of varieties of tomatoes, so finding something unique just means looking for some you've never heard of.

Here is a link that might be useful: Blue Tomato Page at Totally Tomatoes

Thanks!

Starting up in the seed swap found me sorting and categorizing my seed (of which there are too many!). Recalling planting them, I'd say Victory Seed has been most impressive with germination.

Even the well-aged seeds (2011 and iffy handling) are sufficiently viable and the varieties I bought in a "pack" is superb containing ordinary items along with some special heirlooms. Each seek packet includes the nomenclature. If it is anything but common its history and date of release is given. We spent several hundred on our first garden pack. A lot of money for us, but it has been worth every penny.

that blue is a great idea because we were both hammering about aromatic red-leafed basil. The blue as an ornamental would make a nice "gift" seed pack along side some red-leafed basil. Then, he'd have something special to barter with later. What a great idea! I'll check out those other tomato varieties for robust flavor with your directions here. Most tomatoes are pretty new to me! I plan nabbing a few for myself.

Ya'll have a Merry one and stay snuggled up.

Reviewing the tomato catalogs for 2-1/2 hours will cause one to retreat to the kitchen in search of a tomato.

Dawn, my impression is that, at this stage of development, the blues are somewhat lacking in flavor. Is that true?

Bon: how about black cherry? Smaller fruit tend to set better in arid, hot conditions. It's flavor is excellent.

George
Tahlequah, OK

Bon, Victory Seed is one of my all-time favorite seed companies. They consistently offer very high quality seeds at good prices and are very, very careful to tell the actual known history (versus made-up myths and legends that some other companies perpetuate) of the heirlooms they sell.

While I was putting together gift bags of canned goods from our garden this week (I have put together about 125 the last two weeks), looking at all those jars of salsa made me crave tomatoes. Luckily for me, I have a freezer full of sun-dried tomatoes and wine-marinated sun-dried tomatoes. Those dried tomatoes give me my tomato fix in winter and spring before the next harvest comes in. Today I'm going to make a big pot of chili using Chili Base made/canned from paste tomatoes I grew in my garden. My favorite part of the chili is that it is made from our tomatoes. They make the whole house smell delicious.

George, When they are blue, they are not yet fully ripe so are very bland. Then, when they are fully ripe, most of the blue color is gone. I'm not crazy about their flavor, but it is at least as good as the flavor of cherry tomatoes from the grocery store. You know, that's not bad, but I do expect better flavor from home-grown tomatoes. Isn't that one reason we grow them ourselves--so that we can have better flavor?

I tend to grow the blue tomatoes as a novelty, in the same way a person might grow Variegated Tomato. I usually put an Indigo Rose plant or two in a container by the garage or in the ground near my garden entry arbor so people can enjoy looking at the blue tomatoes, but where no one is obligated to actually pick and eat their fruit. I don't think I ate more than a couple of Indigo Rose tomatoes this summer because I had plenty of Sungold and Black Cherry fruit, but I fed the Indigo Rose to the chickens and they liked them.

Dawn

I contemplated the hybrid tie-dye. He already expressed interest with another Egyptian native to trade. So, I'm settling for a stable heirloom as you suggested. It might sacrifice taste when compared to hybrids, but they'll regrow and he can share and trade seed. The Tye-die might make it in there, too. It also depends on the type of mailer allowed. The heirlooms have a good history description, except the basil which I'll acquire elsewhere. I think the basil is a hybrid, but it's marvelously gorgeous, isn't it?

Cherokee Green Tomato for taste experience
Cherokee Purple Tomato for unique color and notorious flavor
Red-leafed Basil

I learned a lot by reading through those catalogs.

I should get enough Jew's mallow to last for years before reseeding and its seed production succumbs to local soil. My daughter proposed different avenues for acquiring this seed born of Mediterranean soils that might be cheaper, but none confirm its origins. In this way, the origins are set and its history complete. Quite a learning experience for this new gardener. This is just too much fun!

an FYI I ship items to my daughter in Palestine but she is required to have an Israeli address. Whatever I ship must be detailed in a customs form. Currently I can not ship seeds although sometimes in the past, a pack or two has somehow gotten into the box, and undetected.:-) Check the USPS site on what each country allows to be shipped in before sending. It might save you time. As for tasty tomatoes, I buy Momotaro from Territorial Seeds.

Puzzle.

Thank you for that. I'm still wading through their fine print. Quite messy.

And that's one good-looking mater!

I grow Momotaro and have for years. Would it be too funny to send a Japanese tomato to Egypt?

Usually I buy the Momotaro seeds from Tomato Growers Supply Company, which sells them at a better price than Territorial. I love Territorial but generally buy only their own exclusives offerings from them because pretty much everything else they sell that I want is available elsewhere at a better price. You also can get Momotaro (and Odoriko as well) at Kitazawa seeds, where the price per packet usually is even lower than TGSC's but there's fewer seeds per packet at Kitazawa. Kitazawa also has seeds of molokhia if you ever need to buy those seeds instead of trading for them. I grew quite a lot of different varieties of veggies and herbs from Kitazawa last year.

It's good they have it. I'm not certain I can ship seeds, legally, to Egypt. I guess that would be considered "parts of plants". What happened to the good old days when I could receive 5lbs of baklava without anyone worried about it being a bomb?

I notice they have a Vietnamese version, "Malabar". I'd like to try that. Thrives in heat. Climbs to 14 feet.

I got the mulukhiya seeds from Egypt. A couple hundred, in fact. Very exciting

I wanted to update with growth. The molokhia or Jew's Mallow or Egyptian spinach of whatever ya wanna call it. It's familial to the Jute plant.

Looking forward to my first power-packed nutritious meal from it.

I barricaded it from bermuda roots by digging into a patch of wheat. Nutsedge doesn't mind, but that's easier to pull out. These are two plants.

Helpful info for anyone that might browse about this plant:

Permaculture Main Crops of Importance

Nutritional value per 100 g (3.5 oz)
Energy 142 kJ (34 kcal)
Carbohydrates 5.8 g
Fat 0.25 g
Protein 4.65 g

Vitamins

Vitamin A equiv. (35%) 278 üg
Thiamine (B1) (12%) 0.133 mg
Riboflavin (B2) (46%) 0.546 mg
Niacin (B3) (8%) 1.26 mg
Pantothenic acid (B5) (1%) 0.072 mg
Vitamin B6 (46%) 0.6 mg
Folate (B9) (31%) 123 üg
Vitamin C (45%) 37 mg

Trace metals

Calcium (21%) 208 mg
Iron (37%) 4.76 mg
Magnesium (18%) 64 mg
Manganese (6%) 0.123 mg
Phosphorus (12%) 83 mg
Potassium (12%) 559 mg
Zinc (8%) 0.79 mg

I crave this food and I think it's the B Vitamn complex that I crave. Couple it with Moringa tree forage and what one would need for proper digestion, and fresh water, a human would need nothing else to survive.

Very fine plant that grew to 5 foot with little care or water. Easy seed harvest. I have seeds. Anyone stumbling across this post, just email me.

Potentially invasive in milder climes. I'm letting it reseed as well. Rabbits adore it.