Siling Labuyo

    This is Siling Labuyo, or Filipino bird's eye pepper. It is one of the world's hotter peppers, slightly milder than a habañero.  Apparently it is becoming less common even in its native land, giving way to the larger and milder Thai peppers at markets across the Philippines, but dont take my word for it: http://www.marketmanila.com/archives/the-disappearing-siling-labuyo
    Seeds were found at a farmer's market in Tacloban in the province of Leyte. They are devilishly hot but the perfect addition to a plate of sisig. Masarap, diba? The leaves themselves are used in tinola, a Filipino soup dish. The fruits are fairly late to mature but I had several hundred on my one large plant which was far more than most people will be able to find use for. They can be used when green or after they fully ripen to a bright red; both are little packets of fire. I used them in stir fries and in salsa in place of jalapeños. I also ate more than a few fresh which is strangely addicting. The burn is intense but short lived and fortunately does not seem to survive my digestive process. Your results may vary. 
   As far as I can tell, this is the only commercial source of true siling labuyo. There are a lot of similar peppers but it seems that the actual Filipino variety is rather hard to come by. 

   My siling labuyo plant as of July 6th. Lucy seems very pleased with it as well. 

   The mature plant in late September. I brought her indoors so the fruit would have time to fully ripen for seeds. 

   And a few fruit on the plant. 

Kabobi

From Iran. Small plants with a moderate fruitset of small to medium sized fruit. Very similar in taste to Round Lemon, also from Iran. It is interesting to note regional differences. While Filipino varieties have a tendency towards high acidity, all four of the Southwest Asian varieties I have grown have been decidedly sweet.  Kabobi is no exception and fans of sweet tomatoes will enjoy this variety.

Round Lemon

From Iran. Medium sized, moderately productive plants. Definitely on the sweet side of balanced but a hint of acid keeps it from being a one dimensional flavor. Medium sized, thick walled fruits resist cracking and are well suited for a variety of purposes.

Black From Tula

     What can I say? The queen of all tomatoes in my book. Gorgeous to look at and full of smokey, rich tomato flavor that is perfectly balanced. This variety is a moderately sized, indeterminate, regular-leafed plant that bears modest numbers of large beefsteaks. Nice balanced ratio of gel to flesh makes them great for a variety of uses. I put them in sandwiches, on bagels with cream cheese or simply enjoy them with salt and pepper. Black From Tula is a must. The only drawback of this variety is that they do not produce more fruit. From Russia.

Demimonde

   This is the F1 cross of Speckled Roman and Angeles City Native. In most ways, this variety splits the difference between its parents. Foliage is wispy like Speckled Roman but stiff instead of droopy. Blossom end is indented like Angeles City Native instead of nippled. It is a firm, very dry tomato with muted acidity and slightly streaked skin. Fresh taste is fair but this variety is primarily suited for sauces. Bred in the United States.

Angeles City Native

   This variety is generally indistinguishable from the common commercial variety you would find at almost any Filipino grocery store. On more than one occasion, I was told that this tomato was called "Native". Rather than describing any cognizable variety, I think the term is meant to denote that it is a variety of tomato that is endemic to the Philippines. The local variety of pigs is also commonly identified as "native." Indeed, as can be seen elsewhere on this blog, several varieties of Filipino tomatoes have "native" somewhere in their name, usually with a geographic location attached. Although I doubt that much commercial agriculture takes place within city limits, seeds for this variety were obtained in an Angeles City market following a hiking trip to the summit of nearby Mount Pinatubo; hence the name.
   When I grew this variety in 2011, the fruit were excessively acidic and very prone to blossom end rot. This year, only the first two fruit showed blossom end rot and the fruit were much more balanced. It is essentially a grocery store tomato, although unlike American commercial varieties which tend to be hybrids, this one appears to be open pollenated and stable. Flavor is similar to a generic roma but with more of an acid bite. Fruit are very firm and meaty with relatively little gel and few seeds. Admittedly, not the most delicious tomato you will ever taste but it is a strong,  productive and unique plant.

Mexico Midget

   From Mexico. Possibly solanum pimpinellifolium, or a currant tomato, a separate species of solanum that readily crossbreeds with other tomatoes. Foliage is wispy and vines are long. This variety is slow to germinate. For the last two years I had all but given up when the seedlings finally emerged. Once the plant matures, it puts out a profusion of small fruit with a full "big tomato" taste. This variety also readily reseeds itself, dropping its small fruit to provide a small army of volunteers the next year. 

Calf's Heart

   From Serbia. Large robust plants with wispy foliage produce a very heavy crop of large pink oxhearts. Many heavy producers lack taste but Calf's Heart is an exception. It is meaty but not overly dry so it is well suited for a number of uses. This variety has a nice, rich tomato taste with just a hint of pumpkin, a subtle flavor that I have noticed in other oxhearts. A good choice for a single-variety garden.

Talavera Native

From the Philippines. Small plants produce large, pink beefsteaks that are sweet with just a hint of acid. Thin skin, soft flesh and a good ratio of meat to gel makes for a great mouthfeel. Like many of the most delicious tomatoes, Talavera Native is only moderately productive but given the small size of the plant, the six or so fruit I picked seemed like a generous bounty. Great for slicing, salsas and fresh eating. A nearly perfect tomato.

Early Kus Ali

From China. Large, robust plants produce an abundance of slightly flattened, round, red fruit that are prone to cracking. Nice ratio of gel to flesh but flavor is too mild. This year, following a dry, hot summer, most of my tomatoes had stronger flavors so I can only imagine how weak this tomato would taste following a rainy summer. Not a bad choice for processing since it is quite productive, but otherwise not worth the garden space.

German Queen

 
   This is that other large pink-fruited beefsteak on a potato leafed plant. Comparisons between German Queen and Brandywine are inevitable but after growing both for a few years, my preference is with German Queen. I always detect a certain earthy undertone in Brandywine that makes it unique but less than perfect. German Queen is just a touch milder than Brandywine and is almost perfectly balanced between sweetness and acid with a hint of pumpkin. German Queen is also a very meaty beefsteak with few seeds and little gel which makes it a great slicer. It would also make a nice salsa or marinara but given the modest to moderate productivity of the big plants, I would be reluctant to use such an excellent fruit for cooking. Presumably, originally from Germany.

Squarehead Pink

     A commercial variety from Korea. Fairly compact plants that produce early in the season. In 2011, only Stupice produced earlier and only by a few days. Stupice is a Czech variety known for being early and not much else. Squarehead Pink is far superior in terms of taste. This variety is a moderate to heavy producer and is fairly resistant to hot, wet weather. Fruit is meaty and firm but not crunchy-hard like American commercial varieties. Taste is well balanced in terms of sweetness and acidity. Overall, a nice medium sized beefsteak. Appears to be a stabilized variety.

   Below is the neatly trimmed parent tomato as found in a Seoul market....

Basrah Rocket

     I spent some time at Contingency Operation Base, Basrah during the latter part of the latest Iraq conflict. The base was known for frequent rocket attacks. Besides the occasional incoming, I can't complain. Anything I experienced could not compare to what my grandfather endured in the trenches of WW I where he served as an artilleryman. It was hot but there was a gym and you could eat omelettes cooked to order every day by the Indian staff contracted to work for KBR.
      I had a very small garden there. Basically just two containers I built into the cinderblock wall I used to reinforce my living area from rocket attacks. Here are a few watermelon plants that seemed to really love the heat. They germinated within 48 hours in the scaldingly hot soil.

     I also had some luck with cilantro during the late winter months when it was still cool but tomatoes were generally a no-go. The temperature differences between day and night were too great and then before long it was too hot during the day and they dropped their blossoms. 

  A coworker also had a small garden near his quarters. His was considerably more aesthetically pleasing. I think he was growing sunflowers, cilantro and perhaps squash. 

     A few days after discovering that I was not the only one with a garden, I noticed that some local Iraqis who did cleaning and maintenance contracting work were also growing plants. They were growing sunflowers, garden cress and arugula. I was particularly impressed with their cold frame. 

     

     I gave them some snap pea seeds and in return they gave me garden cress, arugula and sunflower seeds. I have since grown all of them in my garden in New York. My favorite is arugula. The variety they gave me is a modestly sized plant but has a nice, peppery and fresh flavor. I am not sure if they had a specific name for the variety; I will never know. The airport in Basrah is still there but my understanding is that the surrounding base has been largely dismantled since the Americans left. Rocket is another name for arugula and so I named the variety Basrah Rocket as a sort of double entendre and memento of that place and conflict. Below is a closeup of the flowers. Most arugula flowers are white but most of my plants showed a deep lavender. 

   

Ildi

   Ildi is impressive. The name denotes a Hungarian origin but I am not sure where this variety is from. It is commercially available elsewhere but not as popular as some other grape/cherry varieties such as Sweet 100, Gardener's Delight or Yellow Pear. The sheer numbers of blossoms that set is amazing, even more so because this is not a hybrid. In general, the most productive plants are mostly hybrid as they benefit from what is known as "hybrid vigor". Ildi is an exception. The plants are hardy and resistant to most stressors. They showed little signs of early blight and handled this summer's heatwave well without noticeable effect. Of course the most noticeable characteristic is their heavy fruitset. Flavor is mild, sweet and characteristic of the low-acid taste of yellow tomatoes. 

Nagcarlang

   From the Philippines. Almost certainly a landrace. Reputed to be able to set fruit in both cold as well as hot/humid conditions. This variety is known for exerted pistils although this is not a unique characteristic; most Filipino varieties (as well as many other cultivars from different parts of the world) also exhibit this trait. It is a fairly well documented variety, having been the subject of numerous research projects in Canada and the Philippines. When and if this becomes a commonly cultivated variety, I would expect eventual stabilization into different strains. Indeed, Filipino #2 is cited by the  Graham, T. O., Horticulture Department, O.A.C. Guelph, Ontario as a strain of Nagcarlang itself. My results were a very large and vigorous plant with light to medium fruitset of ruffled and oblate fruit that ripened to a dark pink. Fruits were fairly seedy and slightly on the tart side of balanced. I found the fruit pleasant but the plant a real winner in terms of vigor and resistance to blight. As of mid August, it is one of the only plants that is still a lush, healthy green from top to bottom. Would make a great candidate for a breeding project. 

Samar Native

   From the Philippines. Seed collected in Basey, Samar at a small roadside market in 2011. Modestly sized plants produce a moderate fruitset of small, ruffled, red fruit. The flavor has a balanced start but a tart, assertive finish that seems concentrated around the skin. Most likely a local landrace that has adopted over the years to flourish in a tropical setting. These also grew well in the far less adversarial growing conditions of upstate New York and, not surprisingly, were one of the few varieties that never split after heavy rain. A charming little plant with bold tasting fruit. 

Tanggula

   From the Philippines by way of Canada. Documentation suggests it is a stabilized cross between Earliana and Harrow from around 1960. Medium sized plants with medium to heavy fruitset of orange-red beefsteaks that resist cracking and blemishes yet still have thin skins and soft flesh. I attribute this ability to the relatively small amount of gel in these fruits. Delicious flavor that is just slightly on the sweet side of balanced. Great slicer, only slightly juicier than most oxhearts. I never saw any fruit like this in Manila or the provinces so I would assume that this was an experimental cultivar that was most likely not well suited for mass agriculture in a tropical climate. 

Susong Kalabaw

   From the Philippines. Translated as "carabao tits". Carabao are relatives of the domesticated water buffalo and still are an important facet of agriculture in the rice paddies of southeast Asia. Susong Kalabaw is a little known tomato cultivar from the Philippines, not to be confused with the fruits of an evergreen tree that are known by the same colloquial name. Susong Kalabaw are small, healthy plants with a heavy fruitset of red cherry tomatoes and a resistance to early blight. The fruit are seedy and somewhat acidic although not excessively so. I typically prefer my cherry tomatoes to go into salads and these would be well suited for that purpose. 

VC-11

   VC-11 was my first ripe tomato of the year. This variety is mentioned in several publications of the Asian Vegetable Research and Development Center, notably by the Filipino agricultural researcher Ruben L. Villareal who, as far as I can tell, is a big deal in Southeast Asian agriculture. I e-stalked him  to a higher education institution and asked a secretary to forward an email to him but I wouldn't be surprised if he thought I was a lunatic for asking about some obscure cultivar he may or may not have developed in the 1970's. In any event, this is a fun plant to grow. Smallish growth habit and a fairly heavy fruitset of round red fruits that are a nice balance of acid and sweetness. Most early tomatoes are bland but this one is very flavorful. About the same size as Stupice, that other early tomato, but much tastier.From the Philippines.

Thai Pink Egg

   Much maligned among tomato nerds, I found Thai Pink Egg surprisingly pleasant this year. Perhaps the dry conditions amended its reputed blandness or perhaps it simply has an undeserved bad rap. Admittedly, it is a mild tasting tomato but not excessively so. The relatively firm and meaty nature of the fruit makes it great for salads, salsas or sauce. It has a modest growth habit with stiff, rugose foliage. It would hardly require staking but for the heavy fruitset. It is an abundant producer of beautiful, crack resistant pink fruits. A good alternative to a generic Roma. From Thailand.

Filipino #2

   There is some speculation that this variety is an ancestor of the more commonly known "black" tomatoes such as Cherokee Purple, Black From Tula, Carbon, etc. Personally I find this theory unlikely but the fruit does have a very similar taste. I just finished eating my first Cherokee Purple of the season when I tried this one so comparison was easy. Filipino #2 was slightly more tangy but besides that, they are very similar. Filipino #2 comes on a big, robust plant that has good resistance to wet feet and early blight. From the Philippines.

Gapan Native

   Large cherry type. Modest sized, healthy plant, small leaves. Seedy with a thick skin and a very acidic, almost astringent flavor. Given the low meat to gel ratio and the degree of acidity, I can't really recommend this tomato other than for a curiosity, breeding purposes or if you are one of those people that enjoys Green Zebra. It is a wet season variety so I am guessing it has somewhat of a tolerance for wet feet although that attribute was not tested in this hot dry summer. From the Philippines.

Kamatis na Ligaw

Translated from Tagalog as "Wild Tomato", the name suggests a landrace variety. I grew only one plant this year so I can't vouch for its stability but it does appear to be an improved variety. The plant itself is very large with large regular shaped leaves. Like most Filipino varieties, it is a hardy plant that does well in heat and has a dual tolerance to dry conditions and wet feet although, like all tomatoes (that I know of) it does best in slightly damp, well drained soil. I was half expecting a rather acidic flavor after finding that Angeles City Native, Gapan Native and Native were all very acidic. Kamatis na Ligaw breaks from this mold; it has a very balanced, slightly spicy flavor. I tried it by itself and then with salt and finally with fresh basil and mozzarella as bruschetta. It was very enjoyable and with a nice even balance of gel to flesh, it is a nice tomato for all purposes. From the Philippines.

Iraqi Sunflower

   Along with the arugula and garden cress, the local workers at Contingency Operating Base Basrah gave me some sunflower seeds in exchange for some snap pea seeds I gave them. I planted this variety in 2010 and attempted to save seeds. Unfortunately, weevils got to most of the flower and I was only able to salvage a few viable seeds. I planted the four or five seeds I had saved this year. Two came up and a rabbit ate one seedling. Below is my sole plant this year. A groundhog ended up snapping the flower off before maturity but I luckily found about 5 or 6 more of the original seeds I was given in 2010.
   It is a smallish plant as far as sunflowers go, about 3 feet tall. If the weevils groundhogs don't get to the flower this year (they did), I am going to distribute a small number of seeds. I cant help but find symbolism in coincidence. Sunflowers face east when they mature, towards the rising sun. In the last days of the American military involvement in Iraq, Operation Iraqi Freedom became Operation New Dawn. This flower looks east both to its home 7,000 miles away and the new dawn.