Heirloom Tomatoes
Finally! We have an abundance of tomatoes and it is time to stock up and get to canning.
The heirlooms are the tomatoes that have been passed down from season to season by way of seed saving. 50 years ago folks saved their seeds based on the characteristics they found favorable in the tomatoes that seemed most hardy.
For the same reason that we pride ourselves on tomato varieties, commercial farming began mucking with genetics of tomatoes to grow a tomato that can be picked when green, transports well, that is red and consistent in color when ripe. It’s good for the grower, consistent as a product, but lacks any real flavor.
The tasteless life of the mass-produced tomato.
The term heirloom came from Professor William Hepler at The University of New Hampshire. He described seeds from beans that had been given to him due to their prized characteristics. As small family farms disappeared, so too did heirloom variety vegetables. With the resurgence in farming and seed saving, the old varieties are seen more and more often - even in grocery stores.
They come in a range of colors from yellow to black and whichever one I am eating at the moment is my favorite. I am also reading a book called Tomatoland, by Barry Estabrook. This book gives a great exposé on the tasteless life of the mass-produced tomato. It gets into the chemical-saturated tomatoes of Florida and all of the poor practices you may have suspected that produce those perfect tomatoes you see in the grocery store in the winter. It’s beyond nightmares! There are minimally 27 insect species and 29 diseases that prey on the tomatoes of Florida. These tomato plants are chemically saturated with herbicides and pesticides and then gassed to "mature the greens" (fruit plucked so early from the vines that they bounce without a scratch) with ethylene. All to bring us a perfectly looking tasteless tomato!
The slaves that grow and pick these tomatoes are living in horrendous conditions and suffering from long term medical conditions and the families consistently suffer from birth defects directly related to the pesticide exposure.
Time to Boycott! Stop eating tomatoes unless you know you where they are grown!
Mermaid Farm has sweet golden cherry tomatoes that are to die for!
- Tomatoes Ripening on the Vine
