Pruden's Purple Tomato

Pruden's Purple

70 days, indeterminate — 'Pruden's Purple' is an old family heirloom with a clouded history. It is a potato leaf variety that yields delicious, large, twelve to sixteen ounce fruit with dark pink skin and crimson flesh. The flavor is nice and balanced between sweet and tart.

The first mention of it that we can find is in a "want listing" in the 1980 Seed Savers Exchange Yearbook. For several years it was being sought and then in 1984, it started being traded among seed savers. Synonyms include spelling an punctuation variations - "Pruden Purple," "Prudens Purple," and "Prudence Purple" - as well as the names "Potato Top" and "Peruvian Black."

According to various SSE descriptions, its development is attributed to an "old woman in Eastern Kentucky" by the name of Mrs. Pruden. The early "want listings" describe a fruit that can be huge (up to five pounds each), and of a deep purple, almost black color. However, all instances of what has been offered to date are potato leaf, pink fruit which. In nineteenth century tomato terminology, "purple" always referred to what we now call pink.

Outside of private exchanges among seed savers beginning in the mid-1980s, 'Pruden's Purple' does not seem to have appeared in the commercial seed trade until the late-1990s. Each packet contains approximately 20 seeds.