The 2023 Project Grow Plant Sale will be held on May 20th, from 10:00 am to 2:00 pm at the hoophouse at Dawn Farm, 6633 Stoney Creek Rd., Ypsilanti, 48197. Shoppers can advance order and pay for plants online, or shop in person at the sale.
This catalog can be used for deciding what plants you want to get at the sale, and also for placing advance orders to be picked up at the sale.
New Tomatoes
Beefsteak Tomatoes are large and usually appear later in the season. Most are not as productive as the smaller varieties. These are what most people picture when they think “tomato”. Brandywine is perhaps the best known beefsteak. It’s flesh is creamy in texture and delivers a rich tomato flavor. Lesser known varieties often outshine Brandywine at tomato tastings. You may want to consider Mrs. Benson or Caspian Pink. These varieties keep better than Brandywine and are less prone to cracking.Then there is color to consider. Kellogg’s Breakfast is among the best orange tomatoes. Pineapple is a bicolor with red and gold marbled flesh. Black Krim and Black Beauty are great tasting “black” tomatoes. Grow a plant of each of these to produce a spectacular sliced tomato salad.
(80 days) A large French beefsteak with great flavor. Can reach 6" in diameter for plate filling slices. $4.00 each
(75 days) This tomato has a truly intense, old-fashioned taste. Rich but not sweet. The fruit are somewhat heart shaped, so it is sometimes classed as an oxheart, but it has no point at the blossom end like a true oxheart. Good yield for a beefsteak. $4.00 each.
(75 days) Productive variety producing 3” to 4", red tomatoes with great flavor. $4.00 each
Tomato variety that was discovered in Gorgova village, in the heart of the Danube Delta. Grown for generations by local families, these beautiful big plants, well adapted to wet and hot summer conditions, will yield reliable crops of deep red fruits. They can reach up to a pound depending on conditions. A very good choice for the enthusiasts of traditional tomato varieties. Indeterminate growth. Seeds are very difficult to find, and are probably plants not available in US. $4.00 each
(75-85 days) Developed by Darrell Kellogg of Redford, MI, a large, orange beefsteak (12-16 oz.) tomato,with great flavor and super productivity. $4.00 each.
This heirloom tomato is a traditional variety in Macedonia. The seed was collected near the town of Tetovo. It gives excellent yields of round large red fruits that mature late in the season. The fruits are fleshy with intense flavor and have the good taste of traditional red. The plants are disease resistant and fruit bearing in the autumn. $4.00 each
(80-85 days) Large red mid-season beefsteak with good shape and no flaws. From a selection of plants grown annually by Chuck Wyatt. Very productive. $4.00 each
(80 days) Mild and sweet pink and yellow tomatoes. $4.00 each
(70 days) Mrs. Benson is an old fashioned, potato-leaved beefsteak. Dark pink to light red. Mrs. Benson was a newcomer and a huge hit at the Project Grow 2010 Tomato Tastings! $4.00 each
(74 days) A Russian heirloom named for American opera singer, equal rights activist, Paul Robeson. Another great black beefsteak tomato. Because of its Russian heritage, it will set fruit at lower temperatures. $4.00 each
(80 days) Red and yellow bi-colored fruit averaging 16-24 ounces. Very distinctive sweet, fruity taste. Good yields from sturdy vines. $4.00 each
(75 days) Extra-large stout vines, with dense foliage, produce bountiful harvests of huge, red-orange fruits that average between 1.5 lbs. and 2 lbs. Fruit is almost solid meat with few seeds. The flavor is outstanding - wonderfully sweet and mild yet balanced acid. This variety is not easy to find (anywhere). HISTORY: Originally from Cluj, Transylvania, Romania. Many Hungarians live in Romania and the name ‘Puszta’ means 'prairie' in Hungarian. 'Kolosz' is the Hungarian name for Cluj. $4.00 each
(55 days) Sophie's Choice is an early, determinate beefsteak that does well in cool climates. The fruits are about 7oz which is large for such an early tomato. $4.00 each
(80 days) Originally from the Netherlands, this gold / orange tomato is mellow, meaty, and sweet, rivaling (some say beating) Brandywine in flavor. The potato-leaf vines are tall, robust and productive, bearing large orange fruit mid-season. If you are looking for a new tomato which still has that old-fashioned great taste, Summer Cider is your choice. $4.00 each
(85 days) Yellow/Red – Beefsteak – Late
Great citrusy flavor; another favorite. $4.00 each
Cherries are usually no more than 1” in diameter and grow on rampant, vigorous vines. They include many of the earlier and most prolific varieties. Like beefsteaks, they come in many colors and flavors. Bicolor Cherry is a red/gold bicolor that has a honey-like flavor. Brown Berry Cherry and Black Cherry are true to their names. IPK 963 Cuba is from a seed bank that was maintained by East Berlin. It produces good yields of meaty red fruit shaped like very large grapes.
Oxhearts combine the best features of beefsteak and paste tomatoes. They can weigh a pound or more have broad shoulders and come to a point at the blossom end like a paste. Oxhearts have meaty interiors with few seed cavities. They are good for slicing and quickly cook up into a thick sauce. They also keep well and produce an abundance of large, tasty fruit. Everyone should have at least one oxheart tomato in their garden. Prue and Ukranian Bullsheart are great examples of the type. You may also want to consider oxhearts of another color such as the black Brad’s Blackheart. Although it is listed with the oxhearts, Coeur de Beouf is actually a meaty pear shaped tomato that has excellent flavor and is highly productive.
Paste tomatoes are the ones usually used for drying and making sauces. They tend to be oblong, drier and contain fewer seeds than other varieties. Dunneaux, Huth’s Red Pepper Tomato and Polish Linguisa are large (up to 6 inches long) meaty paste tomatoes that are shaped like an Anaheim chili and make good fresh eating as well as excellent paste. Medium sized paste tomatoes come in a range of colors. San Marzano is a good choice for drying.
(65-80 days) Small to medium-sized indeterminant plum tomato that bears heavily. Measuring 2 1/2" long and about an inch in diameter, It has a fruity flavor and bright yellow skin. It may be frozen whole, roasted, or eaten fresh. $4.00 each.
(75 days) Red, midseason, extremely productive bush plants. $4.00 each.
Sharon loves Saucys because they are easy to freeze and use one at a time.
Saladettes are medium in size and are among the most popular. They combine the prolific yields and ease of cultivation of the cherries with the more complex flavors and colors of the beefsteaks. Pachino, a variety that is not easily found anywhere else, has intense tomato flavor as do Costoluto Genovese and Ethel Watkins’ Best. Olga’s Yellow Round Chicken is worth growing for its name alone, but it delivers creamy textured yellow tomatoes with a rich fruity flavor. Olgas taste best if they are allowed to fully ripen and become pale orange
(85 days) An old heirloom that originated in Russia many years ago. Prolific producer of tasty 8-10 ounce yellow tomatoes. Tolerant of a wide range of conditions and very blemish free. A nice tomato and an excellent addition to salads. Indeterminate, regular leaf foliage. ➽ Best when very ripe, almost the color of an egg yolk. $4.00 each
➤This is one of Kirk's favorites.
(75 days) Similar to Garden Peach, Orange Peach looks like a peach and also has fuzzy skin. We replaced Garden Peach with Orange Peach because it was judged to have superior flavor at the 2023 tomato tasting. $4.00 each
Patio tomatoes are usually determinate and are the ones best suited for growing in containers or in Discovery Garden raised beds. However, because most heirlooms are indeterminate and therefore too large for growing in pots, our list of patio options were limited—until the Dwarf Tomato Project started issuing new cultivars based on traditional heirlooms (for taste) and dwarf stock (for small size). While not heirlooms in the usual sense, we include them because they derive from such and meet our goal of providing open-pollinated patio varieties that taste great. We hope you agree and will consider these if you have limited growing area.
We classify our peppers as either hot or sweet. Where possible, we have included the Scoville rating (a measure of hotness) in the description of each hot pepper. Sweet peppers generally have a Scoville rating of zero.
Sweet peppers generally have little or no heat (Scoville rating of zero)
We offer two kinds of basil, Genovese for pesto and Thai basil.
Swamp milkweed, delphiniums, lisianthus and sweet peas
Blue Bird is a medium blue delphinium with a white bee from the Pacific Giants series of delphiniums. Delphiniums handle Michigan winters with ease but suffer in the hot summers. They are short lived perennials here and usually survive a couple winters.
Height: 3-6 feet
King Arthur is another Pacific Giants delphinium but it is dark purple rather than blue. Like 'Blue Bird', each floret has a white center or 'bee'. Delphiniums handle Michigan winters with ease but suffer in the hot summers. They are short lived perennials here and usually survive a couple winters.
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