Paul James, host of HGTV's Gardening by the Yard, gives a short course on heirloom tomatoes: "My dad's dad, who hailed from the hills of Tennessee and was an avid gardener, grew a large, beefsteak-style tomato that was nearly seedless and exceptionally sweet. I remember that his favorite way of eating it -- other than straight off the vine -- was to slice it thick and slap it between two pieces of white bread with a little mayonnaise. Although I have no idea what the name of the tomato was and neither does my dad, the seeds had been saved and passed on to family members and a few select friends for decades, a practice that made that variety a sort of family heirloom. "In a quest to discover the origin of my family's favorite, I paid a visit to heirloom-tomato expert Darrell Merrell (figure A), also known as the Tomato Man, on his small farm on the outskirts of Tulsa, Oklahoma.
"A former banker and business owner, Darrell said goodbye to the business world a few years ago to dedicate his life to saving, raising and promoting heirloom vegetables, especially tomatoes. And he does it all on the family farm where he was born. He's grown 569 plants and 240-some varieties in the last six years and now has 49 varieties and 149 plants. "Darrell says that an heirloom is a plant that's been handed down from one family member to another for several generations. Darrell considers a plant 50 years old or more an heirloom tomato. A lot of open-pollinated tomatoes have come along since then that will someday be heirlooms. An heirloom is generally a plant that's survived the test of time and produced an abundance of tomatoes with great flavor. "The 50-year cutoff is arbitrary, and not everyone abides by it. It's a lot like the convention of referring to a piece of furniture as an antique only after it's reached the 100-year mark. "Regardless, you'd be hard-pressed to find an heirloom tomato on your supermarket shelves. That's because virtually all tomatoes sold today are hybrids that have been bred to possess traits that favor growers rather than consumers -- for example, tomatoes that ripen all at once so they can be harvested at one time or tomatoes with thick skins that are less likely to bruise. Scientists are even working on a square-shaped tomato, a shape that would allow growers to fit a few more in each box. "Unfortunately, in developing all these traits, flavor has been overlooked. Darrell got into heirlooms because he was looking for a great-tasting tomato whose flavor he remembered from his childhood. "Each heirloom variety has its own story, handed down from one generation to another. Some go back hundreds of years. The oldest tomato is called 'Moneymaker', an English variety between 250 and 300 years old. It was the first English variety grown for market sale -- hence its name. "One of my favorite heirloom tomatoes is 'Mortgage Lifter', so named because a guy named Charlie -- who owned a radiator-repair shop in the 1940s -- raised and sold so many of his prized tomato plants that he was able to pay off his mortgage. Unfortunately, tracing the roots of many tomatoes is next to impossible, as is the case with the one my grandfather grew. "Fortunately, people like Darrell and entire organizations have devoted themselves to preserving heirloom tomatoes, as well as other plants, both edible and ornamental. One such organization, the Seed Savers' Exchange, lists more than 3,000 varieties of heirloom tomatoes, some with histories dating back to the mid-1800s. That may not seem all that old, but remember that tomatoes weren't popular in this country until that time. In fact, an 1863 seed catalog listed only 17 varieties. "When I asked Darrell for a few tomato-growing tricks, I thought I'd hear about using lots of manure and compost, mulching heavily and providing lots of care and attention. Instead I got a much simpler answer: tomatoes are one of the easiest vegetables to grow, so don't kill them with kindness. "For those of you interested in growing heirlooms at home, I asked Darrell to name his top three favorites, which wasn't easy for him to do. Although Darrell wasn't sure which tomato my grandfather grew, his best guess was that it was a potato-leaf variety akin to 'Red Brandywine', a luscious tomato with a family history as convoluted as my own and one that's growing in my garden right now."
RESOURCES :
Seeds and organically grown seedlings of 12 heirloom tomatoes
Seeds of 40 heirloom tomatoes; catalog costs $3.
Seedsavers.org
Free list of 35 organically grown heirloom seedlings
Santa Barbara Heirloom Seedling Nursery
Santa Barbara, CA 93140
Phone: 805-968-5444
Fax: 805-562-1248
Email: heirloom@heirloom.com
Website: www.heirloom.com/heirloom/
Membership ($25) includes a list of more than 1,780 tomatoes, most of which are heirlooms.
Seed Savers Exchange
Decorah, IA 52101
Phone: 319-382-5990
Seeds of 75 heirloom tomatoes
Tomato Growers Supply Co.
Fort Myers, FL 33902
Phone: 941-768-1119
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