Tomato, Montserrat (Organic)
Solanum lycopersicum. Pink-red. 80-90 days. Indet.
We have been experimenting with storage tomatoes for years and have found most of them to be well, meh, flavor-wise. What is the point of a tomato in December or January if it doesn’t taste good? Enter Montserrat, a hanging tomato from the Catalonia autonomous region of Spain. Fruit are traditionally strung on ristras and eaten into the winter months, but we have had success simply placing them in a cardboard tray. Montserrat produces flattened, 2-3” wide fruit with high dry matter content and thick skin, which contributes to its storage life. Bright flavor and good texture for “fresh” eating well into the winter months, whether sliced on toast or into salads. They frequently end up on the final hamburger or BLT of the year. Plants seem to have some disease resistance as they look healthy and continue producing well after most of the tomato patch has given up. Seed was originally brought as a gift by travelers from Catalonia and passed along to us a few years back. Note: This variety was received as Montserrat, however it appears to be a unique strain, as other tomatoes available with the same name are much more hollow inside than this one.
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Sow indoors in flats with good potting soil as early as February, but no later than April. Keep warm and well-watered. Up pot seedlings into 4” pots once they have two true leaves. Transplant into the garden once danger of frost has passed.
Seed Saving
Collect seeds from ripe fruit by squeezing into a jar and add 25% more water. Wait a few days for mold to form. When seeds sink and gel-sac is gone, stir, add water, then decant and rinse to clean. Dry thoroughly. Tomatoes are mostly self-pollinating; isolation is not usually needed for seeds to be true to type.
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