Commercially introduced by us
Phonetically pronounced: sue-gur-an pem-beh-see
Sugören Pembesi comes from the Sugören (formerly known as Çengiler) Village of Yalova, Turkey, that was founded by the Balkan Turks who migrated to mainland Turkey in 1925. This variety has been grown in the same village since then.
Fruits of Sugören Pembesi are pink, uniformly round, firm, juicy and packed with flavor. We loved eating it fresh but it also is great in salads. Being one of the most prolific heirloom tomatoes we have ever grown in our field, indeterminate plants keep pumping fruits until frost. Although fruit skin is thin, we didn’t observe any cracking throughout the season.
We originally received seeds from two different sources for this variety. One was a grower who purchased the seeds from the Sugören Village co-op for us, paying 95 Turkish cents (kuruş) per seed (about half a dollar per seed at the time). Other one was our dear friend and seed saver, Gökhan Erdinç, who received the seeds from another seed saver who had collected the seeds from the same village, where the tomato originated and has been stewarded. We grew both seeds, and concluded that both sources to be genuine.
If you are an heirloom tomato enthusiast, we highly recommend you to try this one.
Our current seed stock was grown by Tom Wahlberg of Decorah, IA. Tom is a farmer certified by the Iowa Organic Certification Program. He was also one of the former seed house managers of Seed Savers Exchange.
Photo credit: Tom Wahlberg
Packet has 25 seeds
Katherine M. (verified owner) –