These are my two Sungold tomato plants, still producing in late January. Surrounding them are some of my winter crops, red cabbage, arugula, spinach and kale.

These are my two Sungold tomato plants, still producing in late January. Surrounding them are some of my winter crops, red cabbage, arugula, spinach and kale.

I can’t believe I’m still harvesting tomatoes from “last” year’s tomato plants. In October and November I took out my summer crops, including most of my tomatoes, as I needed more space for my winter crops. My Sungold tomatoes were still producing, so I let them be, figuring I’d get a few more weeks of tomatoes from them. Then, in mid-December we had a cold snap that forced me to cover up my winter crops to keep them from freezing. The weather has warmed since then, but that freeze should have finished off the Sungolds.

Amazingly, the Sungolds just keep on producing. I’m currently getting about a half pint per week from the two plants. During the summer, they are very productive plants and produce some of the most amazing tomatoes I’ve tasted. Everyone seems to like them, as they are tender, juicy and sweet. I call them garden candy. Now I’ve discovered another trait that makes them worth planting, frost tolerance.

I have to say that the Sungold is a hybrid and I don’t normally plant hybrids, because I like the idea of planting heirloom crops and seed saving. But, I buy these every year now (two plants last year) because they taste so good. The plant’s frost tolerance gives me another reason to make this tomato a must-plant variety, hybrid or not.

Mar 25 2009 update: The tomatoes are gone, now, but I was still harvesting them well into March. I’ll definitely plant Sungolds again this year!