Everything I have written about growing heirloom tomatoes at Freighter View Farms in Bay City, Michigan. From choosing varieties to saving seeds, from the first transplants to the last green tomato of autumn, this is the tomato shelf of the garden.

Tomatoes are where I lose my restraint most reliably. I can make a sensible plan in January and still end up in May with more varieties than the beds asked for. Some mistakes are educational. Some are delicious enough to repeat.

Current Tomato Notes

The Search for a Better Michigan Slicing Tomato is the latest entry in the annual search for a tomato that belongs on toast: enough structure to slice cleanly, enough juice to matter, enough flavor to make me forgive the plant for whatever it did in July.

Keeping Garden Records That Actually Help belongs here too, because tomato memory is unreliable. By January, every good variety becomes legendary and every inconvenience fades. Notes bring the gardener back to earth.

Choosing Varieties

The Best Heirloom Tomatoes for Michigan covers the proven varieties for these Zone 6a beds: Brandywine, Cherokee Purple, Mortgage Lifter, Sun Gold, and Costoluto Fiorentino.

Searching for the Perfect Slicing Tomato Seed is the older version of the same problem, the multi-year quest for the right heirloom slicer.

What I Learned Growing 20 Heirloom Tomato Varieties in Michigan is the long variety note, written after a season when the garden had too many tomato plants and I knew it even as I was planting them.

Growing Techniques

Mastering the Art of Single-Stem Tomatoes explains why I prune to one leader, how I do it, and what that choice gives back in a small raised-bed garden.

What to Plant in February in Michigan includes the early-season timing that sets the tomato year in motion. Tomatoes do not need to be started as early as peppers, though I understand the temptation.

Gardening on Saginaw Bay gives the broader context: cold soil, lake-moderated spring, and why a warm afternoon is not the same thing as tomato weather.

Saving Tomato Seeds

The Complete Guide to Seed Saving for Beginners includes the fermentation method for tomato seeds, which is still the method I trust most.

Saving Seeds in Michigan covers the local timing and storage questions that matter when the harvest ends and the envelopes come out.

Written by Chris Izworski at Freighter View Farms, Bay City, Michigan.