Turkey

Description

Turkey

6-10 0z red round fruit, PL, meaty, juicy and very acidic. Unknown Origin HISTORY:Seeds for this variety were initially donated by a Seed Savers Exchange (SSE) member, Wade Wofford of California who died in 2006, to the SSE’s Heritage Farm some time between 1988 and 1998. Wade obtained the variety through a chain of seed-passing involving members. Wade noted that “A son of the family [through which the seeds were distributed in US] was traveling in Turkey and ordered a tomato slice on a sandwich in a restaurant. The slice overflowed the bread, so he saved out some seeds in a handkerchief and mailed that to his father in the USA (who loved big tomatoes).” Turkey is especially rare because of its potato leaves, an uncommon case with Turkish tomatoes. Unfortunately, we don’t have any information about the locality of this variety but my educated guess is that the seeds for it were collected somewhere in Western or Northwestern Turkey where large, pink tomatoes with complex flavors are favored. I also think that the seeds for this variety might originally have been brought to the region by Turkish immigrants who had left their motherland in Eastern Europe (most probably Bulgaria) in late 19th century or during/after Balkan Wars in early 20th century. My special thanks go to the SSE’s Collection Technician (Germplasm Storage and Distribution) Aaron Burmeister who provided the information about the seed history dating post-1990s. Variety has been introduced to Turkish growers with Turkish synonym, Heybetli