Golden Milano Plums, Nuggets of Gold in a Dreary Season

It's been an odd gardening season this year. It started out nice in the spring, and then some light frost in the middle of May, with a really nasty cold windy Saturday of the Memorial Day weekend. That ushered in thirteen inches of rain in June, followed by some wicked heat, and a few days of 4 inch rains, and a lot of humidity. We haven't had a good stretch of dry weather all summer. The spring harvest was good, but I had eggplants before my early tomatoes. I had early tomatoes on my Hawaiian Pineapple tomatoes before the early tomatoes set. These Hawaiian Pineapples are a very late season variety, 93 days for crying out loud and the plant set a tomato in early June. It's now the start of August and about 15% of my tomatoes haven't set fruit, and another 15% is just starting.

The Golden Milanos, a yellow version of Roma Plum, though have been a bright spot. They are a F1 hybrid, not an heirloom but that's fine by me. My local supermarket was selling local vegetable plants in the spring, and  of course I stopped by to check them out. When I saw these, I just had to have them. I don't grow many plum varieties, and to have a locally grown yellow variety staring me in the face. well, I had no choice but to try them. The fact of the matter is, I've had yellow plums in the back of my head for a couple of seasons. I just never got the seeds.

These plants are  VF which means they are resistant to V = Verticillium wilt  and F = Fusarium Wilt. And they are. I've had a season of battling both, and these plants just laughed it off. The plants are short and bushy. They are very prolific, and like most yellow tomatoes, they have a mild, acid free flavor, They grew rather large, and they are meaty. They roast really well, they make a nice sauce. I like them and would consider growing them again, which considering the general lack of interest I have with plum tomatoes, that statement is golden. I hope you see what I just did there.