Gardening

In 1990 John Green of Sevierville, Tennessee mailed heirloom tomato expert Craig LeHoullier seeds of an unnamed purple tomato. Green said that the tomato had originated with the Cherokees more than 100 years previously. LeHoullier named the tomato "Cherokee Purple" and sent seeds to the Southern Exposure Seed Exchange (SESE). Jeff McCormack, the owner of SESE, said that the tomato "tasted fine, but was kind of ugly -- people may not like it." SESE featured the Cherokee Purple in the 1993 seed catalog. LeHoullier distributed Cherokee Purple seeds to several market growers and one of them, Alex Hitt, who lived in North Carolina, had an immediate success growing and selling the tomato despite its ugly appearance. The tomato was described "as looking like a leg bruise."

In 2014, Cherokee Purple was named one of the top ten tomato heirloom varieties by the Seed Savers Exchange.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cherokee_Purple_(tomato)