🌱 Origin & Story
The story of Stupice begins in 1943 in Czechoslovakia, when breeder Jaroslav Homola made an ambitious cross: (Mikado x Rheinlands Ruhm) x Solanum racemigerum. That last parent is a wild tomato species — and it's the key to everything that makes Stupice special.
Rheinlands Ruhm, known in Czech as "Sláva Porýní," was a respected European variety. Mikado brought the potato-leaf foliage. But it was the wild Solanum racemigerum genetics that contributed the cold tolerance, early maturity, and sheer determination that define this tomato.
Homola registered the variety in Prague on December 10, 1946. It was officially released in 1955 and became widely grown across Central Europe.
Then in 1976, Milan Sodomka sent seeds to Forest Shomer at the Abundant Life Seed Foundation in Washington state. By 1977, Stupice was available in the United States — and American gardeners in short-season climates immediately understood what they had.
Here was a tomato bred with wild species genetics that could set fruit in cool conditions that would stall other varieties. A tomato that didn't need long hot summers to perform. A Czech workhorse that started early and just kept going.
🍴 Flavor & Fruit
Small, 2–4 oz — bright red, round to slightly flattened, growing in clusters of 3–7. The potato-leaf foliage is distinctive and easy to identify in a mixed garden.
The flavor is excellent for an early tomato — which is an important qualifier, because most ultra-early varieties trade taste for speed. Stupice doesn't. It's sweet, tangy, well-balanced, with a rich tomato flavor that holds up against mid-season varieties twice its size.
The fruits are thin-skinned and juicy. Perfect popping size — eat them whole, right off the vine.
🍽️ In the Kitchen
Fresh: Eat them whole, right off the vine. This is a snacking tomato. Keep a bowl on the counter and watch them disappear.
Salads: Halved or quartered into any salad — they're the right size to eat in one or two bites and they don't water down the bowl.
Roasted: Toss whole with olive oil, garlic, and herbs. Roast until they burst. Serve on toast or over pasta — fast, simple, and intensely flavorful.
Early Season: Stupice gives you homegrown tomatoes weeks before anything else is ripe. That first BLT of the season? It's a Stupice BLT.
