Butter and Bull Heart

Large, pink, oxheart fruit. Indeterminate growth habit. Deeply recessed, strongly ribbed stem end. Slight to moderate radial cracking; concentric cracking rare. Fruit fasciation common. Fruit born singly or in clusters of up to four. Standard leaves. Slightly inserted stigmas. Ripe fruit reach 2.9-4.9" long by 3.5-5.5" wide and weigh 0.8-1.2 lbs. Standard flavor. Medium acidity. Meaty texture. Mid-season maturing. Average productivity when grown in 2013 at Heritage Farm. This variety was donated to Seed Savers Exchange in 1996 by Exchange lister Donaline Rogers (CA RO D2). She first requested this variety from local gardener Jenny Virsnieks of Junction City, WI after reading an article about Jenny (then 82 years old) in the September 1st, 1995 edition of the Stevens Point Journal newspaper. Jenny and her husband Peter were from Riga, Latvia where they had operated a grocery store and textile factory. However, not wanting to accept communism, they fled Riga with their two children when the Russian military invaded in 1944. They later immigrated to the U.S. in 1950, living in Ohio for a year and a half before moving to Wisconsin. In 1990, relatives in Riga sent tomato seeds to Jenny, which she has saved since. SSE Accession # 125609