We are so excited to be offering this heirloom tomato which is also a nutritional powerhouse. Ojo de venado has small to medium size cherry tomatoes on a semi-determinate plant that gets to be about 1 foot high and about 2 feet wide. No staking needed. Ojo de venado is very manageable, low-maintenance and productive.
The red cherry tomatoes of Ojo de venado are high in both lycopene and beta-carotene, two phytonutrients that have important health benefits. A 2021 study of Mexican varieties of tomatoes found that Ojo de venado not only had the highest levels of lycopene and beta-carotene of the 10 local tomatoes in the study– but Ojo de venado’s lycopene (~200 ug/g-1) and beta-carotene (45 ug/g-1) levels far surpass most other tomatoes that have been studied!
A bit of history:
Ojo de venado, which means Eye of the Deer in Spanish, was originally part of the Zapotec Collection offered by the JL Hudson seed bank (California). The Zapotec Collection originated with Zapotec farmers (Indigenous farmers) who live on the Sierra Madre del Sur, a mountain ridge in southern Oaxaca, Mexico. In 2002, JL Hudson provided a powerful description of the Zapotec Collection in his seed catalogue:
The population of this rugged, mountainous region is largely Zapotec, and many of these plants have been grown by the tribe since prehistory. Called ‘People of the Clouds’ by neighboring tribes, this aptly describes life at this high elevation…
In the subsistence slash-and-burn agriculture practiced here, the people cannot afford to grow anything that is not hardy and productive. If a plant does not grow like a weed and produce abundantly, without fertilizer, they say “It doesn’t give here.”
Conditions in this remote, roadless area are difficult. Some corn fields are so steep that the people joke about falling out of them, and this occasionally does happen. Crops are sometimes uncertain, and it is difficult to properly dry and store seed due to the humidity. Each parcel must be packed out over narrow mountain trails. It is hard to describe the human effort that has gone into bringing these seeds to you.
Read more about Ojo de venado in our musing: Seed Story: Ojo de venado Tomato
How to Plant: Start seeds indoors 6-8 weeks before the last frost. Plant seed 5mm (¼ inch) deep. Keep moist. When true leaves appear, transplant to a larger container if needed. Transplant outside after the danger of frost has passed/later spring. A small note about Ojo: If starting Ojo outdoors, start about 3 weeks before setting out. Ojo doesn’t like to be in a pot very long (probably b/c it has such a deep root system) and will let you know when it is time by looking droopy. But once in the ground, Ojo thrives and needs little care. If Ojo gets droopy before you can put it in the ground, don’t worry, it will be fine once planted. Ojo is one of our favouirte tomatoes; plus it is high in beta carotene and lycopene so it is well worth the little bit of extra care.
