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While the name gets thrown around a lot, especially with the ever-increasing discussion of shopping at local farmers markets and avoiding conventionally grown, mass produced produce, many consumers still wonder what heirloom tomatoes really are.
While some feel that a set, defined time limit of 50 or 100 years must be included in the definition of an heirloom plant, the short definition of an heirloom tomato is that it is an open-pollinated tomato plant, meaning that it is naturally pollinated by exposure to birds, insects and animals. Hybrid plants, the commercially grown tomatoes, do not always produce reliable, viable seeds due to the fact that some (if not most) of the crosses used to generate the plants were done artificially.
The more traditional tomatoes, those that are often seen in supermarkets and the majority of restaurants, have been bred to enhance certain characteristics besides flavor. For example, many have been selected for disease resistance or for having a slightly thicker skin, which makes them hold up better during shipping. Most of these conventional tomatoes are close to spherical and very red in color. Their flavor is ordinary, with little "wow" factor.
Heirlooms have the "wow" factor. The reason that the particular plants have been grown for decades - in some cases, preserved by passing them from family member to family member - is that they taste great. And each variety tastes different.
The problem with heirloom tomatoes is that they are far more sensitive than the conventional tomatoes. They do not necessarily ship well, too delicate to be put into crates like the regular tomatoes can be, and the very sensitive crops can be greatly reduced when the weather is too wet, too dry, too hot or too cold. These are all factors that can influence the yield of a conventional tomato crop, but their bred-in hardiness allows them to stand up to some climactic variation more easily.
When it comes to selecting heirlooms, you will probably have to go to your local farmer's market or to a specialty/organic grocer. Remember that they will range widely in shape and come in colors from green to red to black and do not be put off by it! There are hundreds of different types (not all available in one place) and they are all unique. Buy a sampling and taste them all. The best way to eat them, if you can't pluck them right off the vine, is to put them into a simple salad or sandwich, where their flavor can really shine. Other options include:
or, you could simply pick up a copy of The Heirloom Tomato Cookbook for more ideas.
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8-14-2006 @1:43PM MJ said... god those are lovely tomatoes............. I have been stufing myself with summer tomatoes I know the end is coming sooon. Anyone have a reciepe for brandied tomatoes that you canned. Had it years ago! The toamtoes are canned with brandy added serve it right out of the jar or can be warmed it is a sweet and wonderful flavor of summer tomatoes in the winter time uses a sweet brany. Use to do silver queen corn off the cobb and freeze each year but my heart has not been in it last few years.
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8-14-2006 @1:53PM Vano said... Hundreds of varieties of great Heirloom Tomato seeds and open pollinated seeds. Heirloom tomatoes just can't be beat for their outstanding flavor. Tomatoes like Green Grape, Stupice, Green Zebra tomato, Brandywine tomatoes, Mortgage Lifter tomato, and Cherokee Purple are some of the many varieties of seeds we offer.
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8-14-2006 @6:23PM bbum said... Broiled cheesy tomatoes...
http://www.friday.com/bbum/2006/08/03/broiled-cheesy-tomatoes/
Yum!
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8-14-2006 @6:27PM Barbara said... Nicole: I hate to tell you this, but your definition of "open pollinated" is only partially correct.
Yes, "open pollinated" plants are pollinated by the action of wind, birds, or insects and are not pollinated by humanity, however, that is not the point behind heirloom tomatoes being "open pollinated." You don't have to hand-pollinate the flowers of hybrid tomatoes, either--in that sense, they, too, are "open pollinated."
The distinction between and heirloom open pollinated tomato plant and a hybrid tomato plant is this: the open pollinated one is self-pollinated, and thus, if you harvest seeds from it and plant them next year, the plants that result will be true to type and will have the same characteristics of the mother plant. (Barring natural mutations, of course, which does happen.)
If you harvest the seeds of a hybrid tomato and plant them, the plants that come up will not have the characteristics of the mother plant--they will not reproduce true to type, because they are the results of cross breeding, and the pollination of one plant with another. The plants that would result would carry a mixture of genetic traits from the grandparent plants, and the mother plant, and would not be predictable in the least.
The bonus for gardeners growing heirlooms is this--you can save the seed from generation to generation and keep planting the same plants predictably year after year, and even slowly improve the strain that you are planting by choosing seeds from plants that show desirable characteristics that slowly develop over time.
With hybrids, in order to grow the same plant every year, you have to buy new seeds or plants every year.
(Sorry--I'm the granddaughter of farmers, so I can totally geek out on the gardening thing.)
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8-14-2006 @7:30PM Nicole Weston said... Thanks for the clarification, Barabara. I am by no means an expert farmer, but I suspected that the original definition was lacking. It was, however, the most clear explaination that I could find, which is why I cited it in the first place.
It sounds like I was close, though I did not put it nearly as well as you did in this case. It also sounds like I need to get more gardening books to brush up on the subject of pollination, though the things I plant tend to die rather easily, so it might not be money well spent.
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8-14-2006 @7:59PM Barbara said... Eh, no worries, Nicole. I could tell you looked it up, but didn't get the whole answer, and didn't know where to find it!
If you ever want gardening books to look at--lob me an email sometime. I am great with gardening outdoors, where Mother Nature gives me a hand, but my houseplants are usually not long for the world. Between me forgetting to close the sunporch windows before the first frost, or my cats harvesting the plants down to nubbins, they don't stand much of a chance.
But outside--stuff that is planted in planters, pots or in the ground--that I am good at. Right now, I have two cherry tomato plants that are over twelve feet tall and still growing, and still blooming and setting fruit like crazy. And they are planted in about a foot deep planter on my deck.
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8-16-2006 @3:30AM Gabriella said... So informative! I just made an heirloom tomato sauce and it was the best sauce i have ever eaten.
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