Quick Summary of Aunt Lou’s Underground Railroad
- 🌍 Origin: A deeply historical US heirloom. Seeds were reportedly passed down from an unnamed Black man escaping via the Underground Railroad through Ripley, Ohio, to a woman known as Aunt Lou. The variety was preserved and eventually introduced to the modern heirloom community by the late, legendary tomato collector Gary Millwood.
- 🌿 Plant Habit: Indeterminate (tall) and vigorous. It responds very well to feeding and fertilization, even when grown in tight spaces or greenhouses.
- 🍅 Fruit Characteristics: Deep pink/crimson beefsteaks. The original lore states they are around 4-8 oz (110-225g), but many growers report much larger, meaty fruits.
- 👅 Flavor: True old-fashioned tomato flavor. Extremely juicy, refreshing, thirst-quenching, and sweet with very low acidity.
- ⏳ Maturity: Mid-to-late season. In cooler climates with short summers (like the Ural mountains), it requires an earlier sowing date to reach its full potential before the cold sets in.
Description from collector Angelina (source):
A powerful, tall, mid-season, indeterminate variety. Crimson, large, meaty, sweet, and aromatic fruits!!! The taste of old-fashioned tomatoes—aroma and sweetness. One of the most delicious varieties!
Variety History:
Gary Millwood from Louisville, Kentucky, is an heirloom tomato collector. Here is another fascinating story about the origin of a variety from his collection. It’s an heirloom variety from Aunt Lou, carried via the Underground Railroad from Kentucky to Ripley, Ohio. The fruits are uniform and rounded, weighing about 4-8 oz.A Black man (unfortunately, his name is lost to history) arrived from Kentucky via the Underground Railroad to Ohio, where many enslaved people crossed the river on their way to freedom. Ripley, which now houses a museum, was a well-known stop on the Underground Railroad. This man grew tomatoes there and shared the seeds with Aunt Lou. She later grew these tomatoes with her nephew, Francis Parker. Francis said it was important to add “Underground Railroad” to “Aunt Lou” in the name to preserve the history of this variety, and he was happy that others would have the opportunity to grow his aunt’s tomato. Sixty years later, Francis shared the seeds with Wilfred Ellis. Wilfred shared them with Susan Barber, who then shared them with me [Gary Millwood]. As I am getting older and my health is not the best, I shared the seeds with my friend Maria Stinger in Kentucky so she could continue growing this wonderful tomato.
Intrigued by such a history, I bought seeds from Angelina and managed to grow a bush of this variety here in our Ural conditions. It is very responsive to feeding, even though it grew in a tight space. The photo of the bush is from September 14. I pruned it to two stems and left 2-3 fruits per truss.
It turned out to be a late-ripening variety for me—the cool and cloudy August took its toll. Next year, I will sow this and other varieties earlier, in February. Today, October 22, I enjoyed the last ripened tomato of this variety. The taste is excellent: not acidic, refreshing, thirst-quenching, juicy, and completely crimson inside.
Overall, I really liked the variety!
Edited October 23, 2019 by Leona
