📌 Quick Summary (TL;DR): Indische Fleisch
- 🌍 Origin: An old heirloom variety. The name translates from German as “Indian Meat”. Despite the German name, its deeper origins trace back to India.
- 🌿 Plant Habit: Indet. Can be kept relatively compact or grown out to 6.5 feet (2 m) depending on conditions. Highly productive. Can be run to 2-4 stems without issue, though fruit size will decrease.
- 🍅 Fruit Characteristics: Dark brownish-purple to mahogany oblate beefsteaks. Weights generally range from 7 to 14 oz (200-400 g). The skin is extremely thin and delicate. Note: Growers report it is very difficult to tell when this variety is ripe just by looking at it.
- 👅 Flavor: The flesh is incredibly juicy—sometimes described as “watery”—and sweet. Due to the thin skin, it is prone to cracking in heat and turns to complete mush if left on the vine too long.
Mid-height, up to 3 feet (1 m), super early, fruits are oblate, black, weighing up to 14 oz (400 g). Great taste, very rare variety. You have to keep a close eye on ripeness. If they overripen, they get extremely soft.
I liked it, it really is early. Because of the dark color, I completely missed ripe fruits several times until the tops were already soft. The flavor is sweet, juicy, and if it overripens, it literally leaks sweet honey. It finished fruiting by mid-September. In the greenhouse, it reached 5 feet (1.5 m). It doesn’t sprawl much, you can easily run it to 2-4 stems, but your fruits will be around 7 oz (200 g) if you do. Very heavy yielder.
Indische Fleisch (Indian Meat). I grew this variety in the greenhouse, it reached 6 feet (1.8 m) tall. The fruits are red/purple/brown, medium to large sized. They are meaty, but somehow watery (meaning overly juicy). The flavor is somewhat balanced, there is sweetness and tartness, but overall the taste is a bit plain. Very good yield.
I grew Indian Meat in the hoop house. The fruits turned out very tasty and sweet. The bushes were up to 6.5 feet (2 m) tall, heavy yielders.
Bush is tall, sturdy, and prolific. The fruits cracked from the heat, the skin is extremely delicate. The taste was just plain tomato, maybe I just don’t “get” black varieties 😂 I had trouble figuring out when they were ripe too.
