Tomato – Ananas Noir (Black Pineapple)

A Purple/Green Striped, Beefsteak, Indeterminate, Open Pollinated tomato

Description

Ananas Noir is assumed to be a chance cross between the red and yellow striped Pineapple tomato and an unknown black tomato (it was found in a field of Pineapple tomatoes) that was developed by a Belgian horticulturist and was released for the first time in 2005 (hence the Open Pollinated designation).

The relatively large fruit (1 – 1.5 lbs) are multicoloured with (in our experience) mainly green skin with red stripes emanating from the base of the fruit. However, descriptions also suggest that they can be brown to dark purple with green shoulders, pink splodges and a touch of yellow (its been described as looking like a piece of tie-dyed fabric as the colours blend together) but the flesh is mainly red/green stripes.

Ananas Noire has a rich flavour (in common with many black tomatoes) and is extremely juicy. It is very similar in both appearance and flavour to Aunt Ruby’s German Green.

We grew it in 2014 & 2015 and it significantly outperformed Aunt Ruby’s German Green (which did particularly badly each year) but like many green tomatoes, we find deciding when they are ripe “challenging” and where space is limited, other (orange and pink) varieties tend to be our choice. (Since we originally wrote this, we’ve found that the “squeeze test” is best, if the fruit has a slight “give” its ripe even if it needs secateurs to take it off the plant).

Green tomatoes also tend to not be very good in cooking as the cooked tomatoes tend to give a “wrong” colour to the sauce. Its tastes OK but its not the colour one expects.