Earlier this week when I was talking about the tomatoes we love to grow I left one out—Matt’s Wild Cherry. I usually forget the wild and just call it Matt’s Cherry.
We first grew them many years ago. I was wooed by the name and bought a packet of seeds. We planted several that first year.
The tomatoes are really sweet and tasty, they are just very small, about like blueberries.
I tried drying them but they just dried up into nothing and although I throw any tommy-toes I have on hand into my tomato canning the Matt’s Cherry tomatoes are just too small for that too.
So after that first year we never purposely planted them again. Yet the tiny sweet tommy-toes planted themselves throughout our gardens and even ended up in one of my flower beds.
We always let most of them grow. They sprawl here and there and produce a ton of tomatoes that we enjoy eating out of hand or throwing in a salad.
Last winter we made a real effort to turn over our garden beds a few times in the hopes of reducing the number of squash bugs we are plagued by. I believe we inadvertently disturbed our usually prolific volunteer plants of Matt’s Cherry tomato. This year we have only one plant. I’m hoping it disperses itself throughout the gardens for next year—in fact I plan to help it do just that 🙂
Here’s information from the Southern Exposure Seed Exchange website about the tomatoes.
55 days. (Indeterminate) [From seed collected in the wild near Hidalgo in eastern Mexico.] Plants bear loads of intensely sweet, tart, and flavorful, ½ in. deep red cherry tomatoes. Plants are vigorous, disease-resistant, and sprawling. Self-sows readily. Always a favorite at our tomato tastings. Small Packet (0.08g)
Last night’s video: The Thread That Runs So True 16.
Tipper
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Morning Miss Tipper, I’d like to ask for y’all to pray for my 48 yo daughter. Last weekend she suffered a massive stroke and was hospitalized and is now in rehab. We heard last night she’s going to be there for awhile. We are praying and asking others to do so. I believe God loves all His children, we hope He brings her mobility and speech back to where she can recover enough to live a near normal life. We appreciate all of you and thank y’all for seeking God’s grace. It’s nearly been a year now that her brother had a near fatal heart attack. He is doing just wonderful. Living a normal life and watching his diet and enjoying his son, 3 grandchildren, his precious girlfriend and close friends . God is so good. Again, I thank y’all and God. Just wanted to say how much we love tomatoes, especially with tomatoes sliced, green beans and a big old corn on the cob for a wonderful tasty dinner of just veggies. Love and blessings to everyone today, tomorrow and always. Jennifer
I will pray for your daughter. I am so sorry you are going through this.
My grandparents had a huge garden here in Michigan. They canned most of their food with exception of meat. My grandfather and his boys always went deer hunting for a lot of their meat. I remember the long rows and rows of tomatoes. I love the smell of the tomato plants. My sisters were so grossed out as I would go out and pick a tomato, wash it off with the well pump and just eat it with the tomato juice running down my chin. Never seem to be able to get that taste that I remember from 60 some years ago.
This was my first year to plant Cherokee purple tomatoes (I know off subject) Oh my word what a wonderful tomato! I have had so many tomato, mayo and toast for breakfast, lunch and dinner! I am so glad I finally tried them when I found some at the Mennonite garden store.
I grew the Cherry 100’s this year, they did great! I have a little area with raised beds on out little corner lor but I love to walk through my little garden and just be alone. I love your channel, Thank you for all the tips. Have a great day!
another hot humid day here in Shawnee OK…I keep praying for rain but to no avail…I planted a few tomatoes, even some very small ones that are even smaller than the Mat’s tomato, also planted sweet peas, beans, taters, amd ,many varieties of flowers—I used grow bags since you and Corie had had success with them….but with no rain (we had rain in january and februeary maybe early March but after that (here at my apartment) no rain fell except for a time or two just enough to wet the sidewalk. City water does even less to help things grow than your well water so as a result absolutely nothing grew–one of many sunflowers planted tried to grow but then it died too. I had planned on planting more beans once the first crop was done and peas again in the fall but unless the weather drastically changes then my dreams of at least something growing this year is dashed….as my health continues to render me less and less immobile I do not know if next spring I will be able to try again–and the deteriation of my memory might be such that I wont even think to plant anything come spring….I have always enjoyed your videos and seeing how everything grows for you but it has been especially pleasing this year since I had such failure….I enjoyed the girls live last night especially when they started singing and obviously enjoyed the time of singing together so much they couldnt stop–but motherly duties called and they finally forced themselves to get off….personally I would not mind a camera set up on all of your family 24/7 just to watch your daily life and hear the conversations and laughter….you are a truly blessed family.
Gaylia-I’m sorry you’ve had such dry weather. Thank you for the kind words about us. We are so glad you enjoy what we do and we really appreciate your support 🙂
I enjoyed reading about how this plant came to be at your house and still continues to come up. That is really neat how they will do that. I saw this variety on a different website and ordered it bc of how much you have talked about yours, along with a Roma type seed. I have never tried to start anything from seed inside. They all sprouted, in mid April, and began to grow but then stopped growing. Some of the little plants shriveled up. I have six left, altogether planted. The Roma plants still have nothing and are not even a foot tall. The Matt’sWild Cherry variety do finally have some little green tomatoes forming. I’m learning patience with gardening and I still want to see what happens even though it may not work out like a success.
Two years ago, I think it was in August, we had a plant that came up and grew so pretty, it began to vine, right next to our kitchen door stoop. I have only ever planted flowers in that little square. I left it just to see how big it would get before the cold came for it. It had one or two little fruits beginning to form, they looked to be watermelon. My husband said he thought maybe he had spit a seed out there while eating watermelon. It grew on into October and sure enough the first frosty night took it. Even if they could have matured, I would not have eaten any melons off of that because we have used pesticides in that little plot in the past, but, I was thrilled to find it in that unexpected place and watch it grow so pretty.
I think every year I’ve had at least two volunteer tomato plants come up. A few years back we had turned our garden over just once and by spring the entire garden was covered with volunteer tomato and a few pepper plants. The only thing my husband and I could figure why so many was we had tried making our own compost which we added before turning it over during winter. The food scraps with seeds in the compost must have spread out all over the entire garden. I dug up the healthy looking plants and transplanted the plants I wanted to keep in the garden. I hated just plowing so many tomato plants up that I transplanted a lot more into cups and gave them to anyone who wanted them. I did tell the recipient of the plant that I had no idea what variety it was. I called them Surprise Tomatoes because it will be a surprise what kind they get since they were volunteers. We had the best time that year with checking on the friends that took some plants to see what their surprise tomatoes were.Most could tell by the leaves, but not knowing for sure made it exciting. My husband won’t compost any more, but I tell others that do compost not to put any seeds in their compost pile unless they want to risk a garden filled with surprise volunteer plants the next year. I also admit to them it was the most fun I ever had gardening that year and the cheapest since I didn’t have to buy anything to seed or plant as far as tomatoes were concerned. Every day I couldn’t wait for the tomatoes to produce to see what varieties they were, if I couldn’t tell be the leaves on the plant.
Because of you and Matt, we grew Matt’s Wild Cherry for the first time this year. I grew them from seed and gave a few plants away but planted out 2 in the place we always grow Tommy-toes, right beside our HVAC unit so that the hose drips right at the roots. Plants always do well for us there and this year was no exception. They produced like crazy and were really tasty- better than the Sun Sugars and Everglades Tommy-toes we grew up at the garden. For the past few weeks we haven’t gotten a single ripe one though because the squirrels are eating them all. I heard it’s probably because they’re thirsty in this time of drought so I can’t resent them for it. Come next year I think I will find a yellow pear shaped variety to grow. Nothing seems to taste better than those to me. And I will put out water for the critters.
Tipper, I learn so much from your blog and YouTube channel. Thank you so much for sharing all your knowledge!
Allie-I’m so glad you enjoy what we do 🙂 thank you!
What a beautiful photo this morning. We only had one cherry tomato plant this year and I kept it in a pot on my front porch. It was handy to go out and pick one or two for a little snack or for a salad. We grew several varieties of tomatoes in our garden though, and we enjoyed many tomato sandwiches. Sometimes I have a thick slice on a toast for breakfast. Yum!
Thank you for the link to Southern Exposure Seed Exchange. I will be trying a few to my toe tomatoes and would like to plant the Matt’s.
I enjoy cherry tomatoes because I can just pop them in my mouth and eat them without having to take the time to slice them. Although I do like a good tomato sandwich once in awhile.
One year when I was still a kid, Daddy got some tomato plants that had been mislabeled that turned out to be Tommy toe tomatoes, mother tried making soup out of them. We were carrying 5 gal bucket fulls to the hog. Nancy mentioned things coming up in unexpected places, I remember when they would be tomato and watermelons coming up as volunteers around the outside the wire of our hog pen near the trough. We would consider them a bonus and eat them too.
We’ve grown different tommy toes through the years. This year we’ve grown Sungold and they have been very good. Last year I tried tasting black Bumble Bee that was grown in the Master Garden Demonstration Garden that our group plants and those were fabulous. I saved seed from those and hope to plant them in our garden in the future.
Thank you for the info of what you have grown this year in your garden, I’ve really enjoyed learning about the different plants you grow.
I want so badly to pick a tomato from the garden, wipe it on my britches, and like it….I just don’t! I try ever year to no avail. My daddy loved to go to the garden and do that. He always offered one to me and the same year after year…”they taste like dirt”, no matter the variety. People give me all kinds to try. They say “this is the one as it’s super sweet”..nope!
Our parents loved tomatoes any way they came. I love everything made with tomatoes just not the mater itself. Maybe one day…..weird thing is, I love beets. My sister says “nothing tastes more like dirt than a beet”. One day, one day.
I am canning vegetable soup today. Y’all be blessed and have a wonderful day!
I always appreciated self-sowers, fruits or vegetables, though raspberries and yarrow become invasive and have to be dug out from time to time. Love when tomatoes, lettuces and radishes turn up in places they must have gotten up and walked to. Just reminds us that gardens are living, breathing, moving things–just like critters and just like us. Truly God’s world in action.