This tomato is an Ancient Landrace paste tomato from El Salvador. Plants are 3 feet tall and loaded with small (30 g) ‘strawberry’ shaped fruit. It comes highly recommended by some of our favourite seed savers. Here is how the seed savers at Good Mind Seeds describe this tomato:
“The fruitiness of tomato is often underplayed in the flavors of ancient heirlooms from south of the Rio Grande. Such is not the case in these heirloom paste/saladette tomatoes from El Salvador. The flavor is similar to Grungy in the Sky Bicolor [a tomato variety], an incredible infusion of intense sweet and sour, with floral undertones and perfect levels of umami. When the flesh has been cooked down into paste, the condensed sugars and tomato essence make you understand how a tomato like this can be saved for so many centuries…With a strawberry shape to win your heart, and a gigantic flavor packed into such a small package, who could resist this feat of indigenous tomato breeding?”
‘Nahua Strawberry’ is our working name for this tomato – and a name we humbly suggest this tomato could be called going forward (we’ll explain).
This tomato has been known to seed savers by the designation ‘LYC 859 El Salvador’. But that designation doesn’t do this tomato justice. It indicates this tomato is an accession of the IPK seed bank in Germany — LYC indicates it is a tomato and 859 its accession number. The notes included in the IPK gene bank’s records indicate this tomato was collected in the Nahua village of Nahuizalco, El Salvador in 1958. The Nahua are Indigenous people in Mesoamerica who speak the Nahuatl language. You can read an interesting article about the history of the village of Nahuizalco HERE (‘Nahuizalco an Indigenous Town with a Rich History’).
About our working name Nahua Strawberry: The ‘Nahua’ part = honours the Nahua and Nahuizalco connection. The ‘Strawberry’ part = the description on the Good Mind Seeds website.
At this point in time, we would like to propose the name ‘Nahua Strawberry’ going forward. We are not suggesting this is the original name or that this is the name for all time. Ideally, we should ask the people of Nahuizalco what the name of this tomato is. We are just suggesting that ‘Nahua Strawberry’ is a more appropriate name that honours the Nahuizalco connection to this tomato versus the designation ‘LYC 859 El Salvador’.
Our original seedstock came from a Seeds of Diversity Canada member.
How to Plant: Start seeds indoors 6 weeks before the last frost. Plant seed 5mm (¼ inch) deep. Transplant after the danger of frost has passed/later spring.
