Aunt Lou's Underground Railroad Beefsteak Tomato

Aunt Lou's Underground Railroad produces mid-sized beefsteak tomatoes of around 100- 300grams each. The fruits in the picture are around 150 grams. Dark-pink to red fruits, quite juicy, containing much gel and seeds. Delightful, slightly tangy tomato flavor. 75-80D. Quite sparse foliage. Indeterminate. 10seeds/pack 

The story behind this variety begins in the mid 19^th Century with an unnamed black man, perhaps escaping slavery, from Kentucky to Ripley, Ohio, bringing these seeds with him. In Ripley was the Rankin House, now known to have been a safe house on the underground railroad. Here the unnamed black man shared his seeds with a woman named Lou. Lou later shared the seeds with her great nephew Francis Parker. Parker later shared the seeds with a Mr. Ellis in Sardinia, Ohio who passed them on to tomato enthusiasts Gary Millwood of Kentucky's Blue Ribbon Tomatoes and seed keeper Mary Stenger in Berea, Kentucky. They later changed the name from “Aunt Lou” to the name it has today. Mary Stenger listed the variety in the seeds Savers Yearbook in 2010. In 2018 the variety was nominated by Jay Erisman’s and earned a place in the Slow Food Ark of Taste.

Indeterminate tomato varieties will keep on growing the whole summer until the autumn frost. They will keep flowering and setting fruit. The sucker doesn't have to be pruned, but if not the plant will grow extremely large. 1-3 suckers could be spared along the main stem and the rest could be pruned. If not pruned at all the plant might tend to put energy into growing large instead of producing tomatoes on the main stem and the selected suckers. All indeterminate varieties could be staked or supported to avoid fruits laying on the ground.

How to Grow

For more information on how to grow this variety, follow the link - How to Grow Tomatoes.