Madame Jardels Black

[Joesondo]

Looking for some information and history on this variety. Got some seeds from Farmer Shawn as part of Carolyn's final seed offer. Wondering if it is worth growing for 2021.

[KathyDC]

Garden.org has it as indet RL slicer, but that doesn't really tell you much.

Unfortunately nothing returned from the SSE search but I don't think that includes back issues. Anybody here have access to back issues? [mention]Ginger2778[/mention] maybe or [mention]MissS[/mention]?

Seems like a good reason to grow it out and report back!

[KathyDC]

Ah, a bit more from posts on TVille. This was from Jeannine Anne:

"Carolyn. Madame Jardel's Black was found in an old ladies French garden by a gardening type tourist a few years ago, Madame had grown them for many years but had no name for them. She gave the tourist a few tomatoes and she saved the seeds, grew the tomatoes and shared ther seeds with the UK Heritage Seed Library. They were offered as one of their freebies with membership a few years ago, I have grown them twice"

There are some photos in this thread, it looks quite pretty: http://www.tomatoville.com/showthread.p ... els&page=2 -- slightly lobed red. EDIT: I actually think that the pics are of Queen of Hearts, not Madame Jardel's.

[MissS]

Madame Jardel's Black was offered by Secret Seed Cartel several years ago. (The seeds are no longer offered). I believe that the above description by Jeannine Anne was a quote from that site. They are a RL black tomato with supposedly very good flavor of French origin. I have looked at my seed catalog and I did not purchase this variety when it was offered. I must say that anything that I have purchased from the Secret Seed Cartel has been very, very good so if it were me I would go ahead and grow this one out without much hesitation at all.

[KathyDC]

I've been collecting French heirloom seeds for growing out in the next year or two, so I'd personally be interested in some of these if you decide to grow it.

[Joesondo]

Thank you for the info! I read that some were having troubles germinating them. Seeds are from 2016.

[KathyDC]

Thank you for the info! I read that some were having troubles germinating them. Seeds are from 2016.

That's got some age but it's not terrible. I was successful at germinating some of Carolyn's seed offer of a different variety from 2015. So give it a shot! My germination rates were good and I didn't do anything super special.

[Joesondo]

I grew it and can report back now. I have a feeling that Madame Jardel's Black is really Purple Calabash. I grew Purple Calabash about 10 years ago, and it's very similar. Even the flavour is similar. Both varieties have that sharp, tinny, metallic, almost sour flavour.

20210902_161016.jpg

[Shule]

… Both varieties have that sharp, tinny, metallic, almost sour flavour. …

I've tried Purple Calabash. I describe that flavor as acrid, if yours tasted like mine. I think it's mostly just where the blossom scars and such are where you get that taste. If you skin it, it might lack that flavor.

[Tormato]

Someone in the MMMM swap has been requesting Madame Jardel's for about 5 consecutive years, now. Hint Hint Hint Hint