This is the latest in a series of posts that I’ve done about my favorite varieties of fruits, vegetables and herbs we grow at Happy Acres. To see my other Spotlights, and those from other garden bloggers, visit the Variety Spotlights page.
Today’s Spotlight is on a brand new cherry tomato I’m growing called Midnight Snack. It’s a 2017 National AAS Winner that is the best tasting indigo-type tomato I’ve ever grown. The tomatoes develop a stunning black-purple coloration when exposed to sunlight. The coloration come from anthocyanin pigments, which means these tomatoes are loaded with even more antioxidants than usual for a tomato. They’re also loaded with flavor, which is a good thing because my plant is loaded with lots of these delicious tomatoes!
Midnight Snack tomatoes
Midnight Snack grows on sprawling indeterminate vines, so it needs to be caged or staked in the garden. I used a five foot tall remesh cage and it has grown over the top of the cage and almost back down to the ground. The tomatoes are ready to harvest approximately 65-70 days after setting out the plants.
Midnight Snack tomatoes
The immature green fruits develop the purplish black color early on if they are in the sunlight. The tomatoes are nice sized too for a cherry type, larger than most, and are borne in clusters of four to as many as eight fruits on my plant. I have not seen any problems with splitting of the fruits either, despite a couple of rainy spells that had other tomatoes cracking and rotting on the vine.
young tomatoes with indigo coloration
Tomatoes that ripen without direct sunlight will not develop the indigo blush, but they are just as tasty. In the below photo there are three large ones that set on in the middle of the cage, and are a dark shade of red with no purple coloration.
Midnight Snack tomatoes
In the kitchen, we have used them in all the ways we use other cherry tomatoes. They are wonderful on and in salads. And we have slow roasted them in the oven and dehydrated them, both of which concentrates the flavor. The taste is hard for me to describe, tart and perhaps a bit savory, and very flavorful. I have snacked on quite a few of them out in the garden, fresh from the vine.
Midnight Snack ready to eat
I hope you have enjoyed this spotlight on a new tomato that has quickly become a favorite here at Happy Acres. This year seed for Midnight Snack is available in the U.S. from Park Seed and J.W. Jung Seed companies. Hopefully it will be more widely available next year. This year All-American Selections sent me seeds of these to trial in our gardens, though I was under no obligation to give them a favorable review, or to review them at all for that matter. I’ll be back soon with another variety to spotlight.
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