Today, we continue sharing about our favorite tomato varieties and what we are releasing for 2024. If you want to catch-up, you can read part 1 here and part 2 here.

Remember, all of the varieties mentioned in this article can be found on our store.growyourhealthgardening.com (and if you sign-up for our newsletter on our store, you’ll get a 15% off coupon to save money on any $15 seed order. Remember, we always include a free package of seeds with every order!)

As you may recall, I shared previously how Craig Schaaf, a grower from Michigan who uses the Korean Farming Technique (KFT), had generously shared some of his favorite tomato varieties with me through a mutual seed swap. That brings us to our next favorite variety which also comes from Craig; Kellogg’s Breakfast Tomato.

Kellogg’s Breakfast Tomato

I have seen Kellogg’s Breakfast Tomato listed in seed catalog after seed catalog and paid no attention to it — mainly in part because of my own bias against the cereal manufacturer. But, come to find out, the name of this tomato has NOTHING to do with the cereal company you might be thinking of right now.

Instead, according to the research I find, it is named after a humble gardener and a Seed Saver Exchange (SSE) member, Darrell Kellogg from Redford, Michigan who by trade was a railroad supervisor, but also loved to grow his own food. Darrell purportedly received this variety from a friend in West Virginia (name unknown) and saved the seed year after year. Darrell eventually shared his seeds with Bill Minkey who introduced the seeds to the Seed Savers Exchange in 1993.  The “breakfast” part of the tomato’s name is said to refer to the beautiful orange color of the inside of the tomato which is reminiscent of the color of orange juice—hence Kellogg’s Breakfast Tomato.

I have grown and enjoyed many an orange tomato, like Olga’s Round Chicken Tomato, Apricot Brandywine Tomato, Big Rainbow Tomato, Pineapple Tomato (which is a bit more yellow than orange), and Orange Orangutane Tomato.

But to be honest, I only grew this variety because Craig recommended it to me. My bias kept me from trying a great variety and I almost missed out on it. That’s something to keep in mind as you explore what you want to grow this growing season. Be adventurous and curious. Be willing to try something new — especially if you can’t find it at the grocery store produce aisle or at a big box nursery. And share your favorites with others to keep the variety going and adapted to your growing region.

“Be adventurous and curious. Be willing to try something new — especially if you can’t find it at the grocery store produce aisle or at a big box nursery. And share your favorites with others to keep the variety going and adapted to your growing region.”

— Erin C, Grow Your Health Gardening owner and soil/hydroponic grower and coach

Kellogg’s Breakfast Tomato has become quite popular among fans that like to try different tomato varieties and has won honors such as:

• Gary Ibsen’s annual “Best-Tasting Tomato” at the Carmel TomatoFest Event
• Dr. Carolyn Male, the author of 101 Heirloom Tomatoes, and who has raised more than a thousand heirloom tomatoes, presents 100 consistently top-performing varieties for North American gardeners and in her book she lists this variety as “one of her favorites”
• Voted one of the “best tomatoes” by Sunset Magazine

Not only is Kellogg’s Breakfast Tomato good tasting, but it also has health benefits such as tetra-cis-lycopene, a healthy anti-oxidant found especially in some orange tomatoes. According to research done by New Zealand non-profit, Heritage Food Crops, the Kellogg Breakfast variety scored a 3.42 level of tetra-cis-lycopene in their lab tests. We will do a deeper dive on orange tomatoes in another article, but for now, just know that these are nutritionally beneficial to the human body (having protective effects even) and a good variety to choose beyond taste and adding fantastic color to any plate!

“Tetra-cis-lycopene is a highly beneficial bioavailable form of lycopene, and exhibits a golden-orange or tangerine tomato color. But not all tomatoes with this color contain tetra-cis-lycopene, as this color can also be expressed by beta-carotene. Hence it is necessary to chemically analyse each tomato variety to verify whether or not it contains tetra-cis-lycopene.”

— Heritage Food Crops

The yellow/orange nature of this tomato also is important as it contains Beta Carotene. Beta Carotene is converted in the body to vitamin A (retinol). Vitamin A is an important nutrient in maintaining healthy eyes and eyesight as well as a critical role in cell growth within the heart, lungs, kidneys and other organs.¹

This seed stock comes from the northern region of the United States (Michigan) and Craig adapted it grow earlier in the season and ripen in cooler conditions. We’ve taken his Kellogg’s Breakfast seed and gone the opposite direction and have grown it in a hydroponic system here in the Southeast. That means it has already adapted to a hot and humid environment for one growing season while also maintaining that DNA of surviving colder climates grown in soil through epigenetics.

We enjoyed this tomato so much that we can’t wait to offer it to you in Craig’s honor. We are thankful for the opportunity to grow such a wonderful variety and think that you’ll enjoy it as well.

Get Kellogg’s Breakfast Tomato seed for your own garden here >
(while supplies last)

Continue reading Grow Your Health Gardening’s 
Part 4 of New Tomato Variety Releases for 2024 >

Footnotes:

1. https://www.webmd.com/diet/health-benefits-beta-carotene ↩︎