I am (very slowly) reading through Amy Goldman's The Heirloom Tomato, and just a couple of hours ago was looking at the chapter on cherries. Here you are:

The yellow starburst on the bottom matches the chapter's picture of Bicolor Cherry (p. 25).

Unfortunately, that's one of the pictured tomatoes that Goldman doesn't write about.

Tatiana's calls it Bi-Color Cherry, and lists six others that are similar. I don't know how similar. I'll leave the investigating to you:

http://tatianastomatobase.com/wiki/Bi-Color_Cherry

Baker Creek, Victory Seeds, and Trade Winds Fruit all seem to sell Bicolor Cherry.

Victory's photo shows a hint of the starburst:
http://www.victoryseeds.com/catalog/vegetable/tomato/tomato_small.html

I forgot what they tasted like, but here's Bi-color Cherry:

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They were over an inch diameter for me.

Hope this helps.

Thanks, MTO!

The picture from Victory looks JUST like it! How exciting. I was hoping it was an heirloom, so I scooped the seeds out of about 10 of them to see if I can start a few plants this year, and maybe get a couple tomatoes before we see frost. I know it's way late, but with the weird weather we've been having, maybe they can hold out until December. They really were some of the tastiest I've gotten at the market so far, and I really didn't know enough about tomatoes at the start of this season to pick up anything outstanding, so if they do end up growing and producing, I'll be ecstatic.

Hmm, your bi-colors look like they're a bit bigger than the ones I have. I don't think I saw any that were over an inch in diameter in the whole crate. I'm making my way through the "similar" list of the bi-colors from MTO's link, but so far, they all sound tasty, and well, similar to what I have, lol.

The Gajo De Melon says it's a medium sized cherry. I'm wondering what constitutes "medium", since I've become so accustomed to the size of Sweet 100's and Sungolds that that's the average now.

So, I'm narrowing it down. They're probably not Gota de Miel because they're not really plum shaped, and probably not Sara Goldstar because they're not that large. I can't find a picture of Marizol Magic, but since it says it's a determinate, I'm thinking that's probably not it, since these are grown for market, and for some reason, I don't equate determinates as being typically grown for commercial production, although I'm probably totally wrong. I couldn't find anything about Marizol Gold Cherry at all, although there seems to be a Marizol Gold tomato that's not a cherry.

So, that leaves a regular bi-color cherry, Isis Candy, and Gajo de Melon, but all the descriptions seem larger than these. Hopefully my tomato guy will have a name for me next week, but if not, at least I'll have seeds of something I know I enjoy!

spaghetina, do let us know if the vendor ever comes up with the real name of your cutie. [So far, I'm interested in trying Bicolor Cherry even if it's not your mystery one.]

I don't think there is any consistency about cherry sizes; I've seen all sorts of contradictions.

One of korney's (second pic on the left) has a 3-rayed star; I'll bet those denote the cell walls. My grape volunteer has similar markings, but very faint (and not yellow). I wouldn't know that if I hadn't cut up so many for drying.

So, that leaves a regular bi-color cherry, Isis Candy, and Gajo de Melon

*****

I've grown all three and no way would I attempt to ID a variety just from a picture b/c different growing conditions and weather can alter the coloration and size of them.

For what it's worth I didn't like the taste of Gajo or Bicolor cherry and of course Isis Candy I've known for a long time as bred by Joe Bratka and it can be sweet and good.

Carolyn

So, I was finally able to get the name of the mystery cherries, and they are :drum roll, please:...

Isis Candy. I should have known, since it seems like that's a much more common and popular variety than the other ones I was trying to narrow it down to.

I have probably a couple hundred seeds saved now, so we'll see what happens next year. The seeds I plucked from my farmer's market Cherokee Purples have sprouted (I'm SO excited!), so even though it's insanely late to be starting anything from seed, I'm doing it anyway because if I can get even one homegrown heirloom this year, after being terribly uninformed at the beginning of this season and purchasing all hybrids (and not very good tasting ones, at that... hmmph), I will be tremendously pleased.