I knew going into this purchase that Burpee had been less than upfront about their seed labeling. Here are some of the things that I found on Burpee's website under the heirloom Tomato section:
- 3 Brandywine varieties: Pink, Red, and Red (PL)
- Photos are shared between Brandywine varieties in the catalog. Pink and Red have the exact same tomato close-up picture in the photo section, but Red's color balance has been adjusted to make the tomato look darker. Red and Red (PL) also share the same exact picture in their photo section. Could Burpee be selling the original Brandywine variety under three separate names to increase sales? I know that Carolyn will tell you that the real Brandywine Red is not a PL variety.
- I "learned" that Arkansas Traveler is a 100-year heirloom from the Ozark mountains. And here I thought Joe McFerran released this variety in 1971 at the U of Arkansas.

I guess all's fair in love, war, and...seed sales?

Then they changed the name to Bucks County something or other, I don't remember the details.

For two years they put out a catalog of just so called heirloom varieties that for me was a catastrophe as to good information.

Then they went into bankruptcy, eventually got out of that and at one point I had a long talk with what's his name who took over Burpee and actually got some good history from him about Big Boy F1, Better Boy F1 and Teddy Jones, a parent of both and how John Peto left Burpee and took TJ seeds with him and started Petoseed.

Carolyn

A couple of years ago I was sent a Burpee catalog and the ratio of space given to pictures vs text and variety info was about 10 to 1.

Then he bought out Shepherd's Seeds based in VT near me, or she sold it, I don't know where Ogden went, and the two catalogs now offer about the same although the descriptions often differ for the same variety. Sigh

Carolyn

I have also attached pictures of the skin. I always have trouble making a definitive determination, but does this look like yellow skin to you? I know it's tough to capture everything in a picture, but to me it looks clear (I also have the benefit of seeing it in person).

The flavor is very strong and acidic as you might expect from a classical tomato. It was a little mushier than other varieties that ripened under similar circumstances. Since I didn't grow it side by side with Brandywine Pink it is hard for me to discuss flavor similarities/differences. Altogether the flavor was OK, but it seemed to be lacking balance and I found it a bit bitter. Maybe this is attributed to the non-ideal ripening conditions.