Home Stoop is a large, red, slicing tomato bred by the brilliant Frank Morton at Wild Garden Seed. It comes from a cross of the Eastern European heirloom Stupice (or ‘Stupishka’ in Czech) with a commercial variety called Homestead. When Stupice was introduced in the ’80s by Abundant Life Seed Foundation it found a home with just about every grower in the PNW. Reliable with our cold nights and damp climate, Stupice delivers good flavor in marginal tomato environments. Homestead was once a popular commercial variety for green-picking in Florida.

In the field, Home Stoop has so far scored well for disease tolerance/resistance, but late blight weather is just now hitting us in early September. The farm manager, Connor, and I were both excited by this variety’s growth. Nice tall, robust vines with good architecture and thick leaves to stave off the pernicious flea beetles. Before harvests began, this is one we were keen to keep an eye on.

Personally I have to say, once the fruit came I was a bit disappointed. The protocol dictates that at harvest, I pull anything more than half pink or more mature. Home Stoop definitely needs to stay on the vine until fully ripe in order to avoid all the characteristics we hate about grocery store tomatoes. Fully vine-ripened fruits do have great flavor, but I’m not sure it’s productive enough for a farm to incorporate; it may be better suited to a home gardener. One thing I will say to Home Stoop’s credit is the fruit stores very well on the counter, and it is huge; a lot of folks have found this one visually very appealing.

First Ripe Fruit:

All harvest data represents two Home Stoop plants from each block, or six plants total:

Harvest 1 (August 22, 2017)

Picking Ease (5=easy, 1=difficult): 2

Marketable Fruit: 10 fruit weighing 1450g (3.2 lb.) Unmarketable Fruit: 11 fruit weighing 914g (2.01 lb.)

Reasons why unmarketable: scabbing, zippers, too small

Harvest 2 (August 29, 2017)

Picking Ease (5=easy, 1=difficult): 2

Marketable Fruit: 10 fruit weighing 2094g (4.62 lb.) Unmarketable Fruit: 6 fruit weighing 634g (2.26 oz.)

Reasons why unmarketable: cracking, scabbing, zippers, too small

Average Fruit Size: 8.07 cm x 6.59 cm      (3.18″ x 2.59″)

Brix: 4.7, 6.8, 6.8

Harvest 3 (September 5, 2017)

Picking Ease (5=easy, 1=difficult): 3

Marketable Fruit: 9 fruit weighing 2028g (4.47 lb.)   Unmarketable Fruit: 8 fruit weighing 1400g (3.09 lb.)

Reasons why unmarketable: cracking, splitting (mold), zippers

Harvest 4 (September 12, 2017)

Picking Ease (5=easy, 1=difficult): 1

Marketable Fruit: 17 fruit weighing 3418g (7.54 lb.)   Unmarketable Fruit: 9 fruit weighing 1564g (3.45 lb.)

Reasons why unmarketable: scabbing, zippers, puckered shape

Harvest 5 (September 19, 2017)

Picking Ease (5=easy, 1=difficult): 3

Marketable Fruit: 2 fruit weighing 421g (14.85 oz.)   Unmarketable Fruit: 2 fruit weighing 431g (15.2 oz.)

Reasons why unmarketable: too small, scabbing