Brandy-Wine Pink Tomato

Brandywine Pink Tomato

Why I grow it

Brandywine Pink is one of those tomatoes I grow because there are things we make in summer that simply deserve a really good tomato. The fruit is large, fleshy and gloriously pink, with the rich tomato flavour that has made Brandywine such a well-loved heritage variety.

For us, this is the tomato for tomato toast, big sliced salads and any meal where good sourdough is going to be used to mop up every last bit of tomato juice from the plate.

At a glance

Type: Beefsteak
Heritage: Yes
Growth: Indeterminate
Fruit: Large, pink and fleshy
Position: Full sun
Support: Sturdy support required
Best for: Fresh eating and slicing

In the kitchen

This isn't one I'd grow primarily for sauce. Brandywine Pink is at its best when the tomato itself is the point of the meal — thick slices, a little salt and good olive oil, perhaps some vinegar, and bread to deal with the consequences.

And then I think we give it its own little recipe:

Our Tomato Toast

This is less a recipe than a very good reason to grow proper tomatoes.

• Really ripe Brandywine Pink tomatoes
• Good sourdough, thickly sliced
• A garlic clove
• Extra-virgin olive oil
• Flaky or coarse salt
• Black pepper

Toast the sourdough until the surface is crisp but the middle still has some chew.

Cut the garlic clove in half and rub the cut side over the hot toast. Cut a very ripe tomato in half and rub and squash it directly into the bread, letting the sourdough soak up the flesh and juice.

Drizzle generously with olive oil and finish with salt and black pepper.

Eat immediately.

No quantities required. The bread and tomato will tell you when you've got enough.

Even simpler: thickly slice a ripe Brandywine Pink onto a plate, add good olive oil, salt and black pepper and leave it for a few minutes. Then attack the tomatoey oil and juices with torn pieces of sourdough. No dignity required.

In the garden

Brandywine Pink is a vigorous indeterminate heritage tomato producing substantial beefsteak fruit through the season. The plants need plenty of room and genuinely sturdy support — this is not a variety to entrust to one optimistic bamboo cane once those enormous tomatoes start developing.

Care

Grow in full sun in fertile, well-drained soil. Water consistently as fruit develops and feed during flowering and fruiting. Tie new growth to sturdy support as the plant grows and protect from frost.

What you'll receive

One healthy, established  tomato seedling grown here at A Garden Between. Plants naturally vary in size and shape and may be supplied in reused nursery pots or growing bags — perfectly useful plastic doesn't need replacing simply because it doesn't match.