Growers’ Notes and Photos (USDA Zones 4-7 Experience)
Got this variety from Alexey Kulik; in his catalog, it goes by the name “Granny German Red”. Really liked it. The flavor is very good, fruits are beautiful with a deep, saturated color. I grew it out in the dirt, and the vine only reached about 3 feet (1 m). I planted it out late, so I can’t give a definitive verdict on the yield. The fruits were supposed to reach up to 1.5 lbs (700 g), but mine topped out around 10-11 oz (300 g).
Edited January 17, 2015 by Drosera
Tracking down the original name led me to this:
Granny Cantrell German Red Tomato
https://www.rareseeds.com/granny-cantrell-german-red-tomato/
And here’s another variation of the name:
Granny Cantrell’s German Red https://www.southernexposure.com/granny-cantrells-german-red-pink-tomato-016g-p-1083.html
And of course, there’s a beautiful legend behind it (machine translated from English):
“Granny Cantrell German Red Tomato
This meaty beefsteak-type tomato is named in honor of Lettie Cantrell, who received seeds *out of* soldiers returning from Germany during WWII. She grew this tomato in the mountains of Eastern Kentucky for many years. It was her favorite tomato and the only one she grew. Every year she saved seeds from the largest tomatoes, some reaching 2 1/2 lbs. Our gardeners consider this to be highly productive. Ah! What a flavor! This variety was named best tasting heirloom tomato of the year in 2006 at our heirloom garden show taste test contest.”
I’m just wondering, how exactly did Granny extract those seeds *out of* the soldiers? 😀 Looks like there was still some life left in the old girl!
Edited November 15, 2014 by Drosera
Good job, Detective Sveta! Yep, looks like that’s the one. Just found it on Tatiana’s TOMATObase too:
https://tatianastomatobase.com/wiki/Granny_Cantrell
It was probably *from* the soldiers, not *out of* them! 😀
Edited November 3, 2014 by ElenaN
Svetik, you are our very own Miss Marple, great job! To be completely accurate, since it’s Granny Cantrell’s, the name indicates who the seeds were received from or who they belonged to. So, Granny Cantrell’s German Red it is.
Edited November 3, 2014 by Esme
In the 2014 season, this Granny had the most outstanding tomato flavor. Everything was so perfectly balanced that I could recognize this tomato out of a lineup blindfolded!
I’ll add photos tomorrow.
My Granny Cantrell. Yield was good, and the variety started ripening among the very first. The flavor is incredibly balanced, and the fruits are juicy and meaty. Huge thanks to Sasha for the seeds!
Here is my Granny! Strangely enough, at the start of the season, the vine was an absolute zero. Then it woke up and pumped out some great, firm fruits with bright red flesh. (Seeds from Lena D)
Here’s my Granny. Rich tomato flavor! It ended up being a late one for me, but it was growing in a shady spot.
Delicious variety, I really liked it, and the yield is good too.
Delicious, highly productive variety. The fruits are large, meaty, and have an excellent taste. I absolutely loved it.
Full Summary: Plant, Yield, Taste and Storage
- 🌿 Plant: Indeterminate. A robust vine that sometimes starts slow in the spring but rapidly gains momentum as the weather warms. It performs well both in greenhouses and out in the dirt, though outdoor plants will naturally stay a bit shorter.
- 📈 Yield: Very high. Despite its large fruit size, the plants are incredibly productive. Several growers noted that it is among the earliest of the large beefsteaks to begin ripening.
- 👅 Taste: The crown jewel of this variety. It consistently earns top marks for having an outstanding, perfectly balanced “old-fashioned tomato” flavor. It’s bold, rich, and unforgettable.
- 📦 Texture/Usage: Massive, slightly ribbed, deep-red beefsteaks. Standard fruits weigh between 10 oz and 1.5 lbs (300-700 g), but with proper pruning, they can reach 2.5 lbs (1.1 kg). They have a dense, meaty, and juicy interior that makes them the ultimate fresh-slicing sandwich tomato.
👨🌾 Editor’s Note: The Real History (and a Hilarious Translation Mishap)
The true story behind this legendary heirloom starts in the Appalachian mountains of West Liberty, Kentucky. In the 1940s, Lettie Cantrell received these seeds from an American soldier returning home from Germany after WWII. For decades, it was the only tomato she grew. Lettie meticulously saved seeds year after year, but only from the absolute largest, meatiest fruits—some tipping the scales at 2.5 lbs. The variety finally gained nationwide fame when it won the “Best Tasting Heirloom” award at the 2006 Baker Creek Heirloom Garden Show.
As a funny side note: In the original Russian forum thread, users were trying to track down this exact history using an automated translation of an American seed catalog. The machine translation incorrectly used a Russian word meaning “extracted out of” instead of “received from.” This led to a hilarious forum debate where the Russian growers wondered what kind of brutal interrogation tactics Granny Cantrell used to physically extract tomato seeds out of returning WWII soldiers! We preserved the joke in the translation above because it’s a perfect piece of internet gardening history.
