The Brandywine is absolutely one of the most popular of heirloom tomatoes. It is popular because it is wonderful to eat, having a taste that is best described as "real tomato". We all know what those "not real" pale, hard, squarish things you get in a store can taste like. Brandywine is rich and delightful and really tastes like a tomato.
The Brandywine variety has a history generations old, and has been one of the most prized of the strains brought back to life during the heirloom revival era. Old seed catalogs, from the time when hybrids were beginning to be so highly promoted, sometimes praised their new varieties, saying that they were better than Brandywine. Now we know better, and are going back to some of the good old varieties for eating pleasure.
The most common sort, if any heirloom should be called common, is the pink variety. It produces a large tomato of the beefsteak size and shape, with a fabulous flavor. The plants tolerate heat well, and in fact produce some of their finest fruits late in the season. They require about eighty to ninety days to maturity. There are also other strains and offshoots of the Brandywine. It can be found in red, yellow, and even a "black" variant, all appreciated by tomato fans.
Brandywine heirloom tomatoes can be used any way you like to eat tomatoes. But some favorites are plain and simple sliced, seasoned with salt and pepper, in any salad where a tomato will fit, and in a tomato pie. A Southern favorite and one of the finest things that can happen to a person, a tomato pie can be constructed by combining your cut up Brandywines with cheese and herbs, and baking in a flaky pie crust. I think you will say that the effort was worth it.
