Picking Heirloom Tomatoes
by Diane Linsley
A few months ago, we went to a
restaurant for a special occasion with
our extended family. We rarely go to
restaurants because I have celiac disease
and can’t eat gluten-containing foods,
which eliminates almost everything at
restaurants, including the salad dressing!
As we started on the salad, my daughter reached in her purse and pulled out several small, green tomatoes that she had picked from our garden. They were a variety called Green Grape, which ripens to a yellowish-green color instead of red. She had secretly brought them, knowing that I might be feeling left out at the restaurant because I couldn’t eat the same foods as everyone else. These little green tomatoes made my day! And they tasted so much better than the tomatoes that had come with the salad.
We grew 40 varieties of heirloom tomatoes in 2007. Most of them were memorable enough to grow again. Trying out new tomatoes has become a passion for me. Each one is unique. I also get a kick out of conducting taste tests with my family and friends. Sometimes the tests have surprising results. Each person in our family has different preferences. One day, my daughter had some friends over while I was harvesting tomatoes. So I prepared a taste test. After sampling each variety at least twice, the girls cast their votes. They all chose the sweet and mild Pearl’s Yellow Pink. I’ve found that kids generally prefer mild tomatoes, especially the yellow ones. Beam’s Yellow Pear is always a big hit with kids. Adults want their yellow tomatoes to have more flavor. Jaune Flammee and Kellogg’s Breakfast fit the bill.
My husband and I like tomatoes that are well-balanced between sweet and tangy. But we don't necessarily agree on specific varieties. I’m a sucker for a strong, tangy tomato. My all-time favorite is Stupice. Besides having great flavor, it's early and productive. Another good, tangy tomato is Paul Robeson. I also like red cherry tomatoes like Mexico Midget and Peacevine Cherry. My husband, on the other hand, likes milder tomatoes. Some of his favorites are Ananas Noire, Purple Passion and Rose.
I’m the only person in my family who is enamored with black tomatoes. My favorites are Brown Berry, Carbon and Black from Tula. Black tomatoes have a rich, earthy flavor that I find intriguing. Some varieties taste a bit like dirt, but most of them are quite good. For a truly unique taste experience, try the Russian tomato Black Krim, which has a naturally salty flavor.
My oldest daughter likes green tomatoes. All of the ones that we grew were excellent, but Green Grape was her favorite. It was also the most productive. Green tomatoes have a fruity, tangy flavor that is hard to describe but very tasty. Of course, when I’m cutting up a plate of tomatoes for myself, I always go for red because red tomatoes are high in lycopene, and I’m a health nut.
Since I introduced my exclusive heirloom tomato, Purple Passion, a few years ago, many people have asked me if it’s really as good as the famous Brandywine. I can’t give a definitive answer to that question because everyone has different taste preferences. All I can say is that in a blind taste test, 3 out of 5 family members preferred Purple Passion to Brandywine. My youngest daughter and I were the only ones who voted for Brandywine. Purple Passion is slightly sweeter than Brandywine, which may be why I preferred Brandywine. But my husband swears by Purple Passion.
You may be wondering at this point what's the best tomato of all. Here’s the answer: There’s no such thing! When it comes to heirloom tomatoes, it's true that “Variety is the spice of life.” I’ve seen gardening forums on the internet where people have gotten in fights over tomato preferences. Thank goodness we have such a large selection to choose from, not only because we all have different opinions, but also because genetic diversity is critical to the continuation of life on this planet.
We live in a society where people are accustomed to uniformity. Every tomato at the store looks just like every other tomato. When people think of tomatoes, they think of red, round balls with no blemishes (and no taste, I might add). When I took a bowl of fresh salsa to a family party, everyone was shocked that it contained 4 different colors of tomatoes. No one had ever imagined that tomatoes could be anything but red. They thought I was exaggerating when I told them that I grew 40 unique varieties in my garden, and that was just the tip of the iceberg in the world of heirloom tomatoes.
One of the keys to preserving the future of food in this world is to preserve genetic diversity. When you grow heirloom tomatoes, you’ll notice that even within the same variety, there is some difference between plants. That doesn’t mean that the seeds were bad! Genetic diversity is seen in all open-pollinated plants (versus hybrid plants), and it’s a good thing. That’s how new varieties emerge. Of course, if you have a plant that produces small red tomatoes in a patch of large pink tomatoes, then you have two choices: Either you weed out that plant in order to keep your large pink strain as pure as possible. Or you taste the small red tomato to see if it’s worth saving seeds from and growing next year as a new variety.
It takes several years of selection and seed saving to stabilize a new variety. But if it’s really excellent and has some unique characteristics, it might be worth it. I’ve been working on my strain of Purple Passion for several years now. When I first got the seeds from Mr. Irvine, they were quite variable. But the strain is getting closer to uniformity as I select the best seeds from the best plants each year. Of course, as an open-pollinated variety, it will never be totally uniform, and that’s a good thing!
Growing heirloom tomatoes and other open-pollinated vegetables and flowers has given me a greater appreciation for the amazing variety of nature. I wish that everyone in the world could have the opportunity to expand their palettes while helping to preserve these plants for the next generation.
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