Peg O' My Heart Tomato, Heirloom

The Seed Savers Exchange - The ‘Peg O’ My Heart’ tomato has been a consistent favorite at the Staunton (Virginia) Farmers’ Market since Peg Davis first began to sell this delicious beefsteak variety there years ago. Prolific plants produce large, 1-2 pound, firm fruits with meaty flesh and a complex, balanced flavor. It is an indeterminate variety, continuing to provide a steady harvest throughout the season.

“With each passing year, the tomatoes just get bigger and better,” says Peg, the variety’s longtime steward. “Our customers wait for it every year, and by the last week of July we have long lines waiting for the first ripe ‘Peg’ tomato.”

When she was in her twenties, Peg Davis of Middlebrook, Virginia, received four tomato seeds from a student in her 9th-grade horticulture class. The student’s deceased grandparents had grown the variety in Pennsylvania all their lives, but the family was no longer interested in continuing the tradition. For nearly five decades, Peg has grown and selected seeds from this beautiful, productive, and flavorful pink beefsteak variety on her farm in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. She sells more than 3,000 pounds of the tomato every season at Staunton Farmers’ Market.

Peg donated this outstanding variety to Seed Savers Exchange in 2022. The ‘Peg O’ My Heart’ tomato makes its début in the Seed Savers Exchange catalog as a From the Collection variety in 2026.

Characteristics: 

• From the Collection for 2026
  
• Heirloom 
  
• Well-balanced, sweet flavor 
  
• Thin-skinned fruit weighing 5-13 oz 
• Fruit ripens throughout the season 
• 85 days from transplant 

Instructions - Sow seeds indoors ¼" deep. Tomatoes are sensitive to freezing temperatures, so wait to transplant outdoors until the soil is warm. Plant in full sun. 

• Start Indoors: 6 weeks before the last frost 
• Germination: 7-14 days 
• Plant Outdoors: 24-36" apart 
• Support: cage, stake, or trellis 

 Firefly Farm & Mercantile may substitute seed vendors from time to time because of the availability