Hope Mountain Nurseries
Keep Calm and Garden on!
Pay your mortgage with heirloom tomatoes? It sounds pretty unbelievable today, but in the early 1930s, Marshall Cletis Byles did just that in his hometown of Logan, West Virginia. With the great depression looming and no prior experience in breeding tomatoes Mr. Byles who operated a small machine shop decided to try to develop a large meaty tomato that would feed families. After six years of crossing plants and saving seeds, he was finally satisfied with his creation and began selling seedlings for $1.00 each which was a hefty price back then. The tomato was of course named after him: Radiator Charlie’s Tomato. The tomato was so popular that people drove hundreds of miles to purchase the seedlings. With the proceeds of the sales, Charlie paid off his $6,000 mortgage in 6 years. Byles’ legacy is now called Radiator Charlie’s Mortgage Lifter Tomato.
This huge heirloom beefsteak (up to 4 pounds; average 2 ½ pounds) consistently wins taste tests.
Rich and meaty, with few seeds, Mortgage Lifter is excellent for slicing, sandwiches, and salsas.
If we had to pick just one tomato to grow here on the farm this would be the one! Indeterminate, 79 days, Open Pollinated