I’ve been trying new tomatoes every year. Now, I’ve hunted down colors and shapes and sizes, looking for great tasting and high yielding tomatoes. 3 years ago, I found Coyote.
Coyote seems somewhat hard to find. I’ve got a suspicion it’s more commonly known as White Current. The descriptions of the fruits are very similar. I haven’t tried White Current. Maybe I should. Right now, though, I’m so hung up on this one, I’m sort of content not to!
So, Coyote is an indeterminant plant. It gets massive. Expecting it to fill in a 4’ square space is setting a low bar! It takes well to pruning and, really, you need to. It’s gangly side shoots just crawl and stretch over itself. On my two-bar trellis, it started smothering other plants. Give it room to grow.
And with all that room, you’ll get fruits. More than you could ever need on just a single plant. They are born in clusters of 4-8. They are super tiny. I’ve had some as small as 1/4”, but average about ¾”- about the size of a nickel. These tomatoes are pale yellow where the sun touches them and pearly white where it’s shaded. The skin is thin, so removing them cleanly can be tricky. A quick twist seems to do the trick to loosen them from the stem.
The flavor, oh man the flavor. Think of the tomatoyist tomato you’ve eaten and condense it into that tiny fruit. It tastes so strongly of tomato. Fruity and savory. And sweet! Sugar-sweet with little acidity. It’s such an interesting combination of that strong, familiar tomato taste and huge burst of sweet. I’ve really never found anything quite like it.
These are a great snacking tomato. I’ll grab a handful before I jump on the lawnmower. I’ll snack on them as I’m weeding. In mid-summer, I’m picking bowls full and trying to pawn them off on friends and family. One plant!
When harvests are getting a little too absurd, I’ll start dehydrating them. Sliced in half and dried, the little disks are stashed away in the freezer. I break them out for holidays and chop them up a bit. Mixed with some salt, garlic, and some olive oil, I have this great topper for charcuterie and grazing trays.
If you can find these seeds, definitely consider a plant for your garden if you’re looking for an awesome snacking or salad tomato. So sweet and flavorful. You might just fall in love like I did!
The Bored Gardener 