The Pork Chop Tomato hails from northern California, where expert tomato growers developed this open-pollinated heirloom tomato for its fantastic flavor, huge fruit, and beautiful golden color.
Keep reading to learn about this tomato and why it makes a great addition to your garden and kitchen!
Looking for Pork Chop Tomato seeds? Check availability here.
Pork Chop Tomato Characteristics
Appearance
These tomatoes are sure to stand out from the crowd in your vegetable garden! They are true yellow tomatoes, as opposed to most tomato varieties whose yellow hue is actually orange.
As they ripen, their light yellow and green stripes turn golden yellow.
Pork Chop Tomatoes are medium size tomatoes, roughly 8-12 ounces. Their shape is considered oblate, meaning they look like squashed spheres.
The plants are 4-6 feet tall, with bright green leaves and vine-like branches.
Taste
As a Beefsteak tomato, Pork Chop Tomatoes are meaty and make for great slicers.
Their flavor is sweet and rich, with a hint of citrus. Don’t worry about the citrus taste, though – Pork Chop Tomatoes actually have very low acidity levels, so they’re safe for sensitive stomachs.
Pork Chop Tomato vs. Other Heirloom Varieties
Pork Chop Tomatoes are a variety of heirloom tomatoes. This means they are naturally grown, open-pollinated tomatoes whose seeds are passed down from season to season.
Because heirloom tomatoes aren’t altered to stabilize or enhance certain aspects of the fruit, like color, size, and shape, they’re known to have interesting shapes and colorations.
This explains the wonderfully wonky shape of the Pork Chop Tomato and its green and yellow stripes.
Most heirloom tomatoes are indeterminate tomatoes, and the Pork Chop Tomato is no exception. However, there are a few determinate varieties too.
Indeterminates like the Pork Chop Tomato are vine plants and produce their fruits gradually throughout the season.
Using Your Pork Chop Tomatoes
Recipes
Pork Chop Tomatoes are renowned as delightful slicer tomatoes, which means they’re especially well-suited for sandwiches and burgers!
The meaty, firm texture and low acidity are great for fresh eating. But their stunning color makes them a fun cooking ingredient, too!
Try your hand at a marinara sauce recipe turned golden by the Pork Chop Tomato.
Nutritional Information
Tomatoes pack a mighty nutritional punch! They’re high in potassium, calcium, iron, and vitamins A, B, and C. They’re also a great source of fiber.
Tomatoes also contain a lot of lycopene, a carotenoid compound that gives tomatoes their color. Lycopene acts as an antioxidant in the body, helping to keep your cells healthy and delaying or preventing damage to the cell wall.
Specifically, Pork Chop Tomatoes contain some of the lowest acid levels of all tomatoes out there. This means they’re an excellent choice for folks with sensitive stomachs or anyone who may struggle with acid reflux.
Growing Pork Chop Tomatoes
Basic Care
Like most tomato varieties, they are easy to grow and care for. The best way to start your own tomato garden is to grow your plants from seeds.
Start your tomato seeds indoors roughly six weeks before the last frost. Tomato seeds love warm, moist conditions, so be sure to pick out a spot for them where they’ll get lots of light!
Once your seeds have germinated and are starting to grow, move them to a larger container or directly into the soil.
Tomato plants need a lot of sun, at least six hours of direct sunlight a day, so consider this when deciding where to place your newly sprouted Pork Chop Tomatoes.
Space them two to three feet apart, or one plant per container, in neutral, well-drained soil. Use a fertilizer that is nitrogen, potassium, and phosphorus-rich.
As indeterminate tomatoes, your tomatoes need some support to help them reach their full potential. Trellises and netting are great support options for vining tomatoes, as well as tomato stakes and tomato cages.
Harvesting
Thankfully, Pork Chop Tomatoes are early-season productive growers! That means you’ll get your hands on some delicious, ripe tomatoes early in the harvest season.
Your tomatoes will be ready to go when their light green-yellow color darkens to beautiful gold and have a bit of give. They should pull off the vine without much effort.
This will happen roughly 75 days from when you transplant your tomatoes from their small containers to the ground or a larger pot.
Like most heirlooms, Pork Chop Tomatoes are open-pollinated, meaning they don’t need to cross-pollinate with another plant to bear fruit. Natural processes like wind, birds, and bees pollinate them!
Pests and Disease
The trickiest part of growing tomatoes is making sure they stay disease free. Tomato plants are most vulnerable to water-borne diseases like fungal infections.
Leaf spot and blight are fungal diseases that come from excess water that can impact your plant’s health. The best way to combat these issues is preventative care.
Keeping your plants dry and free from standing water, as well as spaced out and aerated so the plants can breathe.
Regarding pests, tomatoes are munched on by common garden pests like aphids and nematodes. You can tackle these with some organic insecticide.
Companion Plants
Tomato plants grow great alongside other plants and vegetables that thrive in full sun and dry, loamy soil.
Herbs, root vegetables, and other vining varieties make excellent companions for your Pork Chop Tomatoes!
Where to Buy Pork Chop Tomatoes
As unique heirloom tomatoes, finding ripe Pork Chop Tomatoes for purchase in your local grocery store will be a challenge. However, be sure to keep your eye out for that telltale pop of gold at a farmer’s market or two during tomato season!
You can find Pork Chop Tomato seeds online, though, so if you want to try one out for yourself, get to growing!
Wrapping Up the Guide on Pork Chop Tomatoes
We hope you’re feeling ready to branch out and grow some unique tomatoes this season! If you want to taste the rainbow, the bright, golden Pork Chop Tomato would be an excellent addition to your garden.
For more information on caring for your tomatoes, be sure to visit our complete tomato guide.
- About the Author
- Latest Posts
Leah is a writer, editor, and content manager with Minneopa Orchards and holds a master’s degree in English.
She grew up in the south and enjoyed long growing seasons spent in her father’s lush vegetable garden. Buying produce from the store was unheard of in her house!
As such, Leah enjoys writing about gardening and sharing her knowledge and experiences with others.
Leah can be reached at leah@applepiemedia.net