Solanum lycopersicum
Origin: Yugoslavia
Improvement status: Cultivar
Seeds per packet: ~20
Germination tested 11/2023: 92%
Life cycle: Annual
Jim Tjepkema is a Minneapolis resident and long-time member of Seed Savers Exchange. He maintains about 40 of his favorite seed varieties. In 2021, EFN co-founder Dusty Hinz and his family opened a garden center in Minneapolis, and Jim came in to check it out. They got to talking all things seeds and are now starting to get some of Jim's favorite varieties out to the wider world. In collaboration with Jim, in 2022, Dusty grew this tomato for seed in Farmington, Minnesota.
According to Jim, Milka and her family came to the US as refugees several years after the break up of Yugoslavia. The seed of this tomato came to Milka from a friend bringing her a taste of home. The fruit has a mild sweet flavor, pink color, ox-heart shape, and is fairly large. The plants start off slowly and eventually produce long vines with good mid and late season fruit production. Dusty used it has a slicer and also made some good sauce with it! Tito would be proud.
