Incredible Campari

This tomato was hiding for ten weeks and when found it was in perfect condition!

This morning I had a biggest surprise of my gardening life. OK, so I am gardening only since I retired five years ago, but still.

I was moving a storage cabinet in my basement work shop and out rolled a perfect Campari tomato. Two years ago I collected, fermented and then dried seeds from supermarket tomato because I loved their flavor and size and this was my second season that I have successfully grown them. They are huge producers. (I know that they have registered trademark but I am not selling them.)  

At the end of last September we have collected all tomatoes, including green ones, and stored them in basement. This one must have fallen on the floor and stayed there, on a cold floor, in relative darkness, for ten weeks. TEN weeks! Wow! Next season I’ll try to store them under same conditions: directly on the floor and covered. We’ll see what happens.

By the way, I took concrete floor temperature reading with my infrared thermometer gun and it reads 16°C. The location is close to wall that is insulated only at top four feet. Five feet away the reading was 20°C. It will be interesting to see what happens one year from now and you can be sure that I will harvest seeds from this survivor!

Marjo in my tomato jungle.