Sutton's Peach Blow Tomato

85 days, indeterminate - Although originally introduced by the Sutton & Sons Seed Company of Reading, England as 'Peach Blow'^[1], it is now being sold by most vendors as "Peach Blow Sutton". All of this may sound confusing, for example, what is a "peach blow" or, "did they mean 'peach glow'?" Keep reading and I will explain all of this below.

The vigorous vines have regular leaf foliage that is slightly fuzzy and are quite productive. 'Peach Blow' fruit average about six ounces each and are pink in color (clear skin) mottled with hues of orange, red, and yellow. Their skins are firm, and although not fuzzy like 'Garden Peach', are interesting in that they have a dull or matte appearance; not shiny like regular tomatoes. Similar to how a nectarine looks in relation to a peach. The flavor pops out rich and sweet with a tiny bit of tartness at the finish. Definitely worthy of garden space and not merely and interesting "novelty."

Introduced in 1897 by the Sutton & Sons Seed Company, as mentioned above, 'Peach Blow' never really was carried by American seed companies and was quite obscure. Then in the late 1990s, while mining the USDA's seed bank for interesting old tomato varieties, Craig LeHoullier discovered an entry [NSSL Accession Number NSL 259719 or G 31971] that had little information other than its interesting name; "Peach Blow, Sutton."

Craig grew it out and shared it with tomato enthusiasts through the Seed Savers Exchange in the 1997. In a very quick time, the comma disappeared and twentieth century gardeners and seed companies began incorrectly referring to it as "Peach Blow Sutton." It is part of the SSE seed bank as SSE Accession Number 126422 and SSE TOMATO 5043.

So why did Sutton's call this 'Peach Blow'? It turns out that back about when this variety was introduced, there was a style of Victorian-era glassware that was quite popular. It was known for its matted, peach skin type of appearance and you guessed it, called "Peach Blow."