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Three more from Oleksiy Kulik's "My Ukraine" Series have made it onto the website. I'm hoping to have one more by the e...
04/10/2026

Three more from Oleksiy Kulik's "My Ukraine" Series have made it onto the website. I'm hoping to have one more by the end of the month 🤞

Dnieper Steppes
The Dnieper Steppes are a vast grassland and forested area, surrounding the lower and middle regions of the Dnieper River. They stretch across southern and central Ukraine, forming part of the larger Pontic-Caspian steppe, eventually reaching the shores of the Black Sea. Known for its rich, dark soil, the region is particularly fertile and famed for its agricultural output, and pre-war, was responsible for 10-20% of worldwide exports of wheat and barley, but over 50% of the world’s sunflower seed and oil production came from the region. This tomato, with its beautiful gold and orange stripes, is a beautiful representation of the colours that would be seen in the region. Flavour is rich and fruity, with a well balanced profile.

Kiev Evening
Kiev, the country's capital, needs no introduction. Kiev Evening is said to be Oleksiy's favourite of the series, and the dusky pink-purple fruits certainly live up to this accolade, being meaty, juicy slicers. The flesh is dense, with few seeds, and the flavour is well balanced, between sweet and savoury. There isn't much tang to there, more complex and rich.

Halitskiy
See my previous post in this one, but I had to share it again because it's so pretty!

I have grown some really lovely varieties by Karen Olivier this season. Given that she grows everything outdoors in Can...
01/10/2026

I have grown some really lovely varieties by Karen Olivier this season. Given that she grows everything outdoors in Canada, I have done the same, and they have done pretty well, in testing conditions. I would say that perhaps I should have started them in February with my Sofias, instead of April, but a hospital stay kind of messed up February and March for me! They weren't particularly happy when I planted them out in mid May, and we had two weeks of high winds and cold, damp weather. That was followed by a barrage of 35-40C heatwaves through June, July and August. It has been a really hot, dry summer.
BUT... They really pulled it together. They all picked up really well in early June, and have produced excellently all summer, and some are still ripening outside, here. Every one of these has a really robust flavour, some are sweet, some are rich, but they are all excellent.

Info in captions

The Leprechaun Series, developed by Tatjana Nagle, are a selection of dwarf plants producing fruit of many different sha...
30/09/2026

The Leprechaun Series, developed by Tatjana Nagle, are a selection of dwarf plants producing fruit of many different shapes, sizes, colours, all with easy-to-maintain growth habits and excellent flavour! I have grown quite a few of them over the past two seasons, I've put information on each under the picture.

Heirlooms. Heritage tomatoes. Historical varieties. Open-pollinated. It's difficult to untangle what these mean beca...
29/09/2026

Heirlooms. Heritage tomatoes. Historical varieties. Open-pollinated. It's difficult to untangle what these mean because the terms are often used interchangeably, and meanings can differ by region. I visited the the Garden Organic Heritage Seed Library Open Day a couple of weeks ago, and they used a nice differentiation. We commonly consider any stable variety that has been around for 50+ years to be heritage, but they refer to heirloom as different in that it can be shown to have been passed down generations of a family or at least, that its providence can be traced back to a family who kept it.

I have grown a good number of these really old varieties this year. They aren't as flashy as the modern open-pollinated stuff we see so much of now, but they have genuine history and very often, truly excellent flavour. I thought I would show you a few of them, and I'll put a snippet of each one's story in the caption.

Carie ClaxonAn old, American family heirloom from the family of a Carie Claxon of Raceland, Kentucky. This is a rare or...
29/09/2026

Carie Claxon

An old, American family heirloom from the family of a Carie Claxon of Raceland, Kentucky. This is a rare orange/yellow heirloom, with all the intense flavour we have come to expect from old varieties. These are sweet and balanced, really excellent, and just look at that colour!!

Indeterminate, regular leaf, mid season and did very well outdoors in the UK

Everything is still looking a bit too healthy here, I was hoping to have started stripping things out by now!
21/09/2026

Everything is still looking a bit too healthy here, I was hoping to have started stripping things out by now!

A honeybee landed on this Halitskiy (Galician - My Ukraine Series) while I was doing photos yesterday, and just sat ther...
18/09/2026

A honeybee landed on this Halitskiy (Galician - My Ukraine Series) while I was doing photos yesterday, and just sat there while I had a chat with her and took her picture! So it was already going well before I cut into the fruit, but wow! That colour reveal is something else! Outstanding work from Олексій Кулик!

Growing varieties from this series has caused me to delve deeper in Ukraine's (and consequently part of my own family's) history and geography. Galicia is a historic region which spanned Western Ukraine and Southern Poland, in the foothills of the Carpathian Mountains, and as it happens, is where my grandfather was born. It has a fascinating, multicultural history, having been home to Ancient Greeks, Romans, Byzantines, Goths, and Huns, as well as the native Eastern Europeans, followed by Vikings in the ninth century, and has seemingly been reclaimed and changed hands endlessly. I had believed that this unsettled border was only since WW2, this was what I was told as a child, about where grandad was from. "Culturally Ukrainian but geographically Polish, since the War". But it seems it has been going on since almost pre-history, even as far back as the Bronze Age it served as a cultural crossroads, a migratory stopping point and cultural hub for metal-working traditions from the Carpathian Mountains and an access point to Central Europe. This is evidenced by the many medieval cities in the region, the Central European and Austro-Hungarian influence in the architecture, food and folksong, and, frankly, the historical maps! What a fascinating place! I can't wait to visit, when things are safer.

Sun QueenI grew Indigo Queen F5 by Valdis Pullins last season, and the F6 seed has been available on the website ever si...
18/09/2026

Sun Queen

I grew Indigo Queen F5 by Valdis Pullins last season, and the F6 seed has been available on the website ever since. This year, I grew the F6 seed, and I got three plants producing the correct fruit, and two that produced these pale yellow fruits with tonnes of antho instead! Convinced I had a new segregate, I gave it a preliminary name, but having done some research, I can see that Valdis Pullins has already named this segregate, which is called Sun Queen. So here it is!

Stunning anthocyanin fruits with a pale yellow base colour, and beautiful streaks. These look, in the words of my other half “like AI on a plate!” They are a bit out of this world, for sure! Flavour is strongly citrussy, and refreshing. They make a great slicing tomato if you want a bit of a kick from your fruit. From an initial cross of Queen of the Night x Orange Russian 117 made by Valdis Pullins. Indigo Queen was another segregate from this cross.

Semi-determinate, like Indigo Queen, don't prune it, give it lots of support.

Pictures 1-4 show Sun Queen
Pictures 5-7 show Indigo Queen

Psssssstttt..... Look!!!!A fluffy, variegated mini dwarf?? With cute orange heartshaped, fuzzy fruit?? That taste lik...
16/09/2026

Psssssstttt..... Look!!!!

A fluffy, variegated mini dwarf?? With cute orange heartshaped, fuzzy fruit?? That taste like persimmon?? What more could you ask for?!!

Some seeds in those fruit would be nice Allure, I'm just sayin'...

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