You could try growing 10 new varieties a year and never run out of flavors to try! Some of them are Listed on Slow Foods Ark of Taste.

The world of heirlooms has an incredible variety of flavor. Naturally, an unripe tomato has very little flavor. The tomato industry has created tomatoes that are picked green (unripe) to ship well and then gassed with ethylene gas to help “ripen” or color up. Why grow Heirloom Tomatoes?įlavor: In today’s world of hybrids and mass produced plants, it seems that flavor has many times been left out. Examples would include Lucky Cross, Cherokee Green and Ananas Noire. Mystery Heirlooms are those there is no explanation for – natural crosses by possible bee pollination or mutations. This would include Green Zebra by Tom Wagner and Black Cherry by Vince Sapp and the newer varieties Liz Burt and Chocolate Stripes. These would include Watermelon, Winsall, Abraham Lincoln, Marglobe and of course, Rutgers.Ĭreated Heirlooms are those great tasting open pollinated tomatoes created by enthusiastic plant breeders in the last 40 years or so. Most older commercial tomatoes were open pollinated and worth saving the seeds of. Crnkovic Yugoslavian, Neves Azorean Red, Opalka, Eva Purple Ball, Anna Russian and Cherokee Purple would be examples.Ĭommercial Heirlooms are those developed before the advent of the hybrid Big Boy in 1949 by Burpee. Many of these have been discovered by enthusiastic seed savers like experts Carolyn Male and Craig LeHouiller.

Heirloom Tomatoes can be divided into 4 categories: Family, Commercial, Created and Mystery.įamily Heirlooms are those handed down through the generations of a family, for example Brandywine or Soldacki. An open pollinated plant is one that you can save the seeds from and the new plants will grow true to their description.

Heirloom tomato plants for sale