Mule Team Heirloom Tomato

An heirloom variety that pulls its weight!  Mule Team's vigorous, sturdy, drought-resistant plants are abundant producers of 8 to 12-ounce beefsteak tomatoes with excellent flavor and juiciness.  A great variety for both fresh eating and canning, Mule Team bears heavily and consistently right up until frost with little change in fruit quality across the season.  Mule Team tomatoes are part of a series of tomatoes developed by the same hobbyist breeder.  With Americana-inspired names like Box Car Willie, Red Barn, Great Divide, and Pasture, this unique collection almost vanished into extinction until finally the seeds were discovered stored in glass jars in a tool shed by his son, Joe Bratka.  Unable to germinate the seeds, Joe sent samples to famed tomato collector Dr. Carolyn Male, who was able to grow them, eventually offering the seeds on Seed Savers Exchange.  Writing in her book 100 Heirlooms for the American Garden, Dr. Male describes Mule Team tomatoes as "very pleasing—zippy an