| The Heirloom Tomato: |
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. . Taste a piece of history. |
Tomatoes have been cultivated around the world for centuries.
The origin of tomatoes is considered to be the western coast of South America,
in present day Peru. During those centuries of cultivation, tomato seeds were
saved year after year for next year's crop, allowing the farmer or gardener to
choose tomato seeds from plants with particular qualities. For example, seeds
were saved from plants that produced an especially good aroma, texture or
flavor.
Grocery Store Tomatoes
When the United States agricultural boom occurred, it brought
with it centralized agricultural methods and large corporate farms growing food
on thousands of acres instead of a dozen or few hundred. Agribusiness - as these
corporate farms are collectively known - uses mechanized harvesting and packing,
and ships food over long distances. Every tomato raised by the agribusiness
model must survive the rough handling and the time it takes to get it from the
field onto the consumer's dinner plate. Corporate agribusiness needed tough
skins, drier fruits, and fruits with a long shelf life. Agribusiness turned to
hybridization in order to create the new traits as fast as possible.
But what makes tomatoes so appealing: vine-ripened, thin
tender skin, loaded with enzymes (which also means they break down quickly after
harvest), plump juiciness; is the opposite of what agribusiness needed.
What Is An Heirloom Tomato?
Heirlooms are the "old-fashioned / great tasting"
juicy tomatoes with the delightful texture, flavor, aroma and tenderness that we
associate with the home-grown tomatoes of the past. A tomato must meet these
three criteria to be considered an heirloom variety:
- The variety must be 'true to type' from seed saved from each fruit.
- Seed must have been available for more than fifty years.
- The tomato variety must have a history or folklore of its own.
The Heirloom Tomato Appeal
Most agree that sheer variety and flavor are the most direct
and obvious advantages of growing heirlooms over commercial hybrids. Heirlooms
come in ripened colors of red, yellow, green, orange, purple, striped and even
white! There are stuffers, old-fashioned beefsteaks, and even a tomato that
looks and feels like a peach.
Try Heirlooms and "taste a piece of history."
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