Story:
This unusual tomato has quite an interesting story. It was bred by a Mr. Carman who chose “Peach” as the female and worked with a number of the favorites at that time for the male.He chose the best of the offspring for the female the next year and again bred to some of the favorites of the day like Ponderosa, Stone and Ignotum.Eventually Terra Cotta was the result. It was said to have good keeping qualities. The tomato was featured on the cover of the J. M. Thorburn & Co, New York 1893 catalog - in color no less!Their original seed packets were 25 cents while many other varieties were only 5 and 10 cents. J.M. Thorburn went bankrupt in 1921 during the banking crisis and most of their seed stock was lost. According to the story below written by William Woys Weaver in Mother Earth News it was still held by an old farmer. It was later released through Baker Heirloom Seeds.