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.
I’ve been looking for a red cherry to try and these sound perfect, especially as they are not prone to splitting, a problem I’ve been having with Sungold, esp. later in the season. I’ll be adding these to my list.
Thanks for the shout out about new AAS Winner Midnight Snack Tomatoes! Glad you enjoyed them this year in your garden! Please give them a review at http://all-americaselections.org/product/tomato-midnight-snack/
I may have to put those to the test next year and see how they perform in my climate. They sure look like winners for you. I’ve been reluctant to try any of the “indigo” types of tomatoes because the first ones on the market seemed to lack flavor, but the newer varieties seem to be getting higher marks for flavor.
I grew Indigo Rose when it first came out and I thought it was horrible! I only ate a couple and the rest went on the compost pile. Midnight Snack tastes nothing like that.
They sound lovely, I do enjoy tart cherry tomatoes. None of the cherries I grew this year had that nice tartness. And it looks like Cosmonaut Volkov did well for you this year, I think it’s a tasty tomato that’s very consistent, it’ll produce in bad years when few others will.
I am growing this tomatoe but they taste bitter to me. Are you supposed to eat them in the black state or wait till turn red….hard time getting them to turn red but have gotten two red ones and taste bitter???
I wait for them to turn red. Mine do not get real sweet when ripe, but they don’t seem bitter to me.
ok… I’m confused. You showed the red/purple ones, & said that’s what they look like when they get sun. Then you showed 3 red ones that you said were shaded, therefore didn’t turn purple. So, are they ready to eat when they have turned from green/purple to red/purple or do we then have to wait for them to turn completely red? Your reply/comment above says you wait for them t turn red!
They turn from green to red when ripe. If they are red & purple, they are ripe. If they are all red, they are ripe. They need sun to have the purple coloration, so mine had a mix of all red and reddish purple ones.
When I was buying my tomato plants I bought this midnight snack tomato. I did not know what to expect as the tag had no picture. They were absolutely gorgeous purple and green and then to purple and red. The plant was so big and had possibly a hundred tomatoes on it. Of course I gave some away to the neighbors and everyone loved them and was so surprised by their color. My other tomato plants are just about the at the end of the season and I still have many midnight snack Tomatoes left to ripen.
This is the second year I’ve grown them and am quite pleased. They are a very big if not huge sprawling variety so give them plenty of room. Mine have been slow to mature but worth the wait. No splits and the foliage does not deteriorate from below over time like so many other varieties.
It’s good to hear how they are doing for you. My plants are still going strong this year when many of the others are struggling.
Should mention I’m in Northern Indiana. We can usually go into early October before a frost and the way these plants are holding up, they should easily last till then. I made a cylinder shape out of heavy gauge farm fence five feet tall and secured sassafras poles around the circumference taking the vines up to at least 7 feet. A week ago, the weight of the plant snapped some the poles and its now streaming down one side, healthy as can be. .
Hi
I grew this tomato last summer, a lot of tomatoes fell on the ground at the end of the season. They are sprouting. My question is will these seedlings stay true to the original midnight snack?
Hi Susan, since Midnight Snack is a hybrid those seedlings will not be the same. Sorry, but to get the Midnight Snack and other hybrids you have to replant every year.
Susan said she had sprouts forming from the midnight snack tomatoes. Since they will not be true to the original because they are a hybrid will the sprouts still be any good just different or should you not eat them ?
Thank you.
The volunteer tomato plants sprouting from the Midnight Snack tomatoes will be edible, but it is impossible to say what they will look like or taste like. If you have room to experiment with extra plants, that might be fun. If your space is limited, I would stick with a tried and true plant you have grown yourself or bought from a nursery or garden center.
Susan any update on how these volunteers turned out?
I’ve grown Midnight Snack the last two years on my back porch which gets sun, but not as much as I would like. So fsr, it is the variety that has grown the best there. I grow them in big containers. I have had minimal splitting, but live in an area with a ridiculous amount of rain (more than Seattle) and getting overwhelmed with water in a container seems easier than in ground. There were still several left on the vine when we had our first Fall freeze. I brought them in green at that point and they eventually ripened and were ok to eat. This gave me garden tomatoes fsr later than normal.
Can I grow these toms in a pot/container?
I haven’t tried growing it that way. If you do, it will need some kind of support like a cage, since the vines are quite vigorous and long.
thanks
We’re growing Midnight Snack in a grow bag this year, and it’s thriving like crazy.
Thanks. So far, so good for the container plant. Midday temps set somewhere between Broil and Inferno in the PNW last week seems to have slowed growth down some what, but we’ll see.
Mine are purple and in direct sunlight all day. Will they turn red or is purple going to be it and I will eat them while they are purple. I guess I am having a hard time figuring out when they are ripe.
It can be tough to tell if they are all blue! Mine pretty much had some red on them so it was easier to tell when ripe.
I grew mine out in the sun since they were seedlings, the tomatoes came in purple/green if not solid purple and have stayed that way. Trying to figure out when to pull the first ones. I can always just start pulling them and trying for myself, but don’t want to waste a good mater if I can get an easy answer. Seedlings have been outside since mother’s day. 3ft plant and I plucked off the first two flowerings to let the roots get set up. 3rd set I let go and have the first tomatoes. I have no idea when to harvest the first ones as this is new to me. The color description here doesn’t match what I’ve seen but this post has been the most informative so wanted to ask here. No sweat either way as like I said, I can always just try them for myself and learn. Just wanting an opinion from someone who has grown these. I’m super excited. Thanks in advance.
I always let some red be showing in the tomatoes before I harvest. Even the really purple ones should have some red eventually. The tomatoes will also soften a bit as they ripen.
Hi Dave. Previously you mentioned that Midnight Snack Cherry Tomato is a hybrid and it would be unknown what the volunteer plants might produce. I was wondering if you have had any experience with the volunteers since that was discussed several years back. I’m sure you had some coming up in your garden but not sure if you clear them out. Any advice would be great. I don’t have the kind of space to just wait and see but I also may not have access to this same variety at my local garden center.
Hi Marjie, I don’t usually get many tomato volunteers and I don’t let them grow out so I have no experience with that. I don’t really have the space to experiment like that. For hybrids, I stick with the F1 as it comes from the seed packet so I am sure of what I will get. The F2 generation (which is what the volunteers are) can be all over the place in size, shape, flavor and color.