For the longest time...I hated tomatoes. To me, tomatoes were mushy, flavourless red things that people kept putting on sandwiches for some reason. Then one day, things changed. I reluctantly tried a black krim tomato grown fresh from David's garden. I was prepared to be unamazed, but actually, it was incredible! It was juicy...packed with flavour...and grown mere steps from our house. This is what a tomato was supposed to taste like! That summer my husband grew many varieties of heirloom tomatoes and I grew to love them all (though I'll always have a special place in my heart for the black krim).
Heirloom tomato plants are varieties of seed that have been preserved for at least 50 years, or before 1940, allowing them to develop resistance to diseases, pests, and to adapt to specific climates and growing conditions. These tomatoes are open pollinated naturally, by birds and insects, and produce offspring that are bio-diverse. Commercially bred tomatoes are artificially cross-pollinated resulting in a hybridized tomato species with little genetic variation.
Commercial tomatoes are ultimately bred for yield, uniformity of size and colour, and long transport life, so if your experience with grocery store tomatoes has been less than impressive, you can see why. No conventional tomato that has sojourned across the country could ever compare with the bold and unique flavour of a locally grown heirloom variety bred, painstakingly, for the love of it.
Heirloom tomatoes may also have a lot more to offer us nutritionally when compared to commercially bred tomatoes. Tomatoes in general are known to contain high amounts of vitamin c, a, and k, as well as lycopene, a powerful antioxidant. Studies published in the Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture confirm that, "The organic growing system affects tomato quality parameters such as nutritional value and phenolic compound content. " (1)
Varieties of Heirloom Tomatoes and Their Uses
There are hundreds of varieties of heirloom tomatoes unique to virtually every region. To make it a little easier, there are a few colour categories of heirlooms such as, yellow, red, orange, green, and black. And of course, heirlooms have varied uses as well, some are sauce tomatoes,paste tomatoes, salad tomatoes, or sandwich tomatoes. Here are a few family favourites at our house to get you started:
Black Heirloom Tomatoes:
Black Krims are one of the most delicious black tomatoes, bearing 5" roundish fruit. Their beautiful black colouring is often speckled with green or red. This is a tomato that was born to be on a sandwich.
Black Prince tomatoes are medium sized and bear relatively early. The fruits are fleshy, have low-acid, and a great, deep flavour. Use these little princes for sandwiches and slicing.
Red Heirloom Tomatoes:
The most popular red heirloom is known as brandywine, a lush and sweet flavoured large tomato. The brandywine date back to the 1800s and is another excelled slicing and sandwich tomato.
San Marzano tomatoes are an elongated plum variety with very few seeds and are favoured as the ultimate sauce tomato by many, many Italians.
Cherry Heirloom Tomatoes:
Yellow pear tomatoes are small and pear-shaped with the rich flavour of a cherry tomato. These plants bear a lot of fruit and are perfect way to add a splash of colour in a green salad.
The brown cherry tomato has been on our top 5 list for the last few years. It is a rich tasting, fairly large cherry tomato that produces prolifically even after the summer months
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