there are many varieties of heirloom and I don't like all of 'em...

I'm learning a few by looks but I do wish they'd label 'em so I'd know what to ask for (and what to avoid) next time. Ie, I love the little Conestoga. Do not like Brandwines at all.
kay

Heirlooms are tomatoes of long ago. Seeds brought over on boats from the old country. There are many varieties and many colors.

They kind of got phased out as higher producing tomatoes were developed. Tomatoes that had a longer shelf life and tomatoes that would ship well. Of course what we now have a lot of is tomatoes that have no taste - but they have perfect form and ship well.

Here is a link to a site in Carmel that has a huge festival every year. Chefs come in and whip up delicious things and wonderful wines are served. Hundreds of types of heirlooms can be tasted. This sounds right up your alley barnmom!

The place offers 350 heirloom tomato seeds for sale.

Here is a link that might be useful: Gary Ibsen's Tomato Fest

In various tomato forums, people get into big fights trying to define "heirloom".

There is better understanding as to what is a hybrid.

Rarely you also see "heritage tomatoes"

Then there is "O.P." instead of heirloom. Whcih stands for Open-Pollinated.

dcarch

I just know I won't ever grow Cherokee Purple. They are very similar to a Brandwine. EXCEPT - they are almost invasive. I had 3 plants that took over an area about 15 x 15. Some of the tomatoes weighed between 3 & 4 pounds. And there were so many of them. I've been hacking down the vines for two days now. I've been setting branches loaded with tomatoes at the end of my drive with a sign that says "free to good home." They are disappearing as fast as I can set them out there.

By the way, the consumer isn't the only one who is sometimes confused regarding the different labeling of tomatoes. I have seen signs advertising tomatoes as heirloom that looked suspiciously like regular old store variety tomatoes to me!

Nowadays too, with the growing popularity of heirlooms, the quality offered is often no better than run of the mill. When they first began to show up in produce stores, they often came from fairly local, small farms, and so had been harvested when they were actually ripe. When they began to show up in big grocery stores and come to restaurants on SYSCO trucks, the quality suffered as they were picked too soon so as to travel better.

My quality meter is my nose. If a good whiff of the stem end doesn't make me want to bite into it then and there, it is likely one of those and probably not worth the extra $$.

I have found that true heirloom tomatoes really are superior in flavor and texture. They're often not terribly pretty, but they sure are good!

Lori

Some heirlooms are superior in flavor and texture. Different tomatoes have different flavor. I don't really care for Brandywine, but I love Mortgage Lifter. Then again, I like Lemon Boy and it's not an heirloom. Neither is SunGold, but it's delicious with a flavor reminiscent of pineapple.

Don't care for San Marzano, but I like Rutgers a lot.

Anyway, heirloom tomatos are usually old varieties of tomatoes which have not had the flavor and texture bred out of them, and they are often fragile and don't survive shipping well. Today's hybrids were developed to withstand the shipping process and the flavor suffered as a result.

The trick is to find the varities you like that grow well in your area. If you don't want to grow them, buy local tomatoes, they will have been ripened on the vine and are usually fresher and have more/better flavor.

Annie

Yes, Mortgage Lifters! Once you've had one of these, you'll never want anything else.

Well - it's settled. Mortgage Lifter will replace Cherokee Purple next year in my garden.

LOL, dedtired, that's what my boss says too, that it's the only tomato anyone in the world ever needs. Of course, that doesn't stop me from growing a dozen different varieties...

Annie

Teresa sent me Sungolds in the mail. Alice and I popped them like candy.

I am not terribly impressed with the "heirlooms" I have purchased at the grocery store. But they are pretty. I still long for the warm tart tomatoes I ate in my grandparents' garden with a salt shaker in my hand.

Annie, not surprised San Marzano doesn't work for you in MI. Our coastal fog doesn't produce SM tomatoes very well either. The only thing that seems to work for me are the O.P. tomatoes (thanks dcarch, I had been just calling them "weeds" or "volunteers"!)... I get more of those then I know what to do with. Even the bugs don't eat them (but they definitely attack an heirloom fruit I try to grow).

Ann, the local farm market grows and sells San Marzano, but they are very bland and virtually flavorless. I think you're right, they don't like Michigan.

Somehow my volunteers usually taste the best, better than those I've so carefully planted and grown. Figures....

Annie

Annie, I've also found that volunteers taste the best, but I haven't had any of those in Westchester yet. I have found that tomatoes like to grow late in the year here, and some of the seeds that I've planted are just now making decent plants. I expect to have edible tomatoes by December or January, although I did have quite a few cherry tomatoes in August. My best hybrid volunteers in Venice were a combination of cherry tomatoes and some kind of gold tomatoes - they were very sweet and very prolific throughout January and were cherry in size and gold in color.

Lars

I've seen several people say this year that they didn't find anything special about they Cherokee Purple [not speaking to the overabundant problem, smiles] but our very favorites this year were the Cherokee Purple, some nice German Yellows, a striped pointy ended paste type and a very pretty and delicious large grape purple whose name I don't know. Now I must admit we have pretty much perfect tomato soil and it was a good tomato weather year, aside from too much heat at times, but the Cherokee Purples were and still are outstanding.

I can't seem to grow any of the purple/black tomatoes including Cherokee Purple, Black Krim, Gregory's Altai, etc. But I grow year after year, with seed I save, a smallish deep orange tomato called Jaune Flammee. Oh boy, is that ever a delicious tomato, quite disease resistant, and prolific. I adore it. Second favorite is Aunt Ruby's German Green, a very large tomato that is fully ripe when it's still green with just a blush of red.

I purchased some pretty, but not all that flavorful, heirloom tomatoes the other day. They were in Safeway's organic area. Most of the tomatoes were mushy to touch. I'll see what the farm market has later this week. I don't recall that many of the growers have heirlooms.

barnmom - that's because some heirlooms are not high producing plants. I grew Brandywine one year and I think I got 5 tomatoes off one plant. It's not worth their time.

I don't care for Brandywine either. Grew Siberia last year. It was definitely an early tomato but not much flavor. Wasn't good enough for a repeat trial. Tried a couple of other heirloom varieties this year--Costuloto Genovese and Opalka.

Costuloto produced loads of tomatoes but doesn't have a lot of flavor. Yellow stringy shoulders. Also doesn't keep well. Won't grow it again.

Opalka is a big sauce/paste tomato with a good yield. But I think it would benefit from a longer growing season than I have here in central Wisconsin because the bulk of my crop is still green. It's worth another trial but with some sort of hot house arrangement early in the season...walls-o-water, hoop house, etc. Mine were planted in raised beds & caged along with everything else.

So far, after 4 or 5 years of gardening here, I've had great luck w/ Super Fantastic & Celebrity--both hybrids. So those have been my mainstays w/ two or three experimental plantings.

Gave Wisconsin 55 (hybrid) a trial run also. Tomatoes are small but good flavor. Think I will include it every year because it gives me the feeling that it will be dependable. Never know whether or not we'll actually have 'a summer' here! And, I should add that our property has a lot of trees so I do not have an ideal all day, full-sun garden site.

Love the SunGolds, too! Annie's fav, Rutger's, is on my 'next year' list.

Almost forgot!! I tried the 'Momotaro' tomato this year. It's a deep pink, not quite red tomato. Medium to smallish size with fantastic flavor. It was our hands down favorite this season. Good yields, too. Earned a place in the 'to be repeated' category.

ci_lantro, I grew Wisconsin 55 one year, but it was a bad tomato year with an early frost and I didn't get more than a dozen ripe. I should have saved some seeds, but I didn't, maybe I'll give them another try.

I'll look for Momotaro too.

Lars, I do envy you your fresh December tomatoes. I won't buy tomatoes at the store, they never taste good, so my tomato consumption is limited to summertime for fresh. I use my homecanned ones in the winter for cooking but I'll pick the tomatoes off a restaurant salad in the winter.

Annie

Oh, I did forget to mention the Rutgers. Beautiful, prolific and most important super tasty. Not surprisingly they are the real basic staple around here. Well, them and Ramapo. Both developed not far from here at... Rutgers.. lol. Gotta love my Jersey tomatoes.

No one has mentioned Caspian Pink. We did taste tests of 5 heirlooms that I grew several years ago (included Cherokee Purple, Boxcar Willie and Brandywine but don't remember what else I grew then. Out of the ten people testing, Caspian Pink was the definite winner with Boxcar Willie coming in second.

BTW, it was a pink Brandywine which was the original Brandywine heirloom. The red one isn't great IMHO and yes, heirlooms seldom are as prolific as hybrids with Cherokee Purple being an exception. I don't grow it anymore because I don't like the color of sauce, salsa, etc. it makes.

For canning, I strongly recommend Opalka and Amish Paste. I save the seeds each year although I still use seeds that are 10+ years old and they always germinate. (You can't save seeds of hybrids and expect to get the same tomato.)

We have a really short season, even with hoop greenhouses. I've been searching for early open pollinated varieties that taste good. Heirloom is a plus, but taste and earliness rules. This year we tried Cherokee Purple. The first ones ripe were misshapen and I think I expected them to turn darker....they were kind of mushy when I picked them, but the flavor wasn't bad. Are they supposed to be a strange not-very-dark pinkish color?

We've had good luck with Black Krim, Green Zebra and Stupice. This year an OP called Legend is doing the best - meaty, huge and really tasty.

I picked up a couple of Sunsugars at our plant sale....a Sun Gold hybrid I think. They're going nuts in town in the community garden. I have a load in the dehydrator...halves sprinkled w/ coarse salt and pepper, garlic powder and oregano....mmmm....

I like my tomatoes to have a little bite of acid. Unfortunately, many tomatoes produced are described as low acid. I experiment and buy heirloom plants in the hope of getting some acid.
Nancy

Not many posts about tomato's grown in California or Oregon, so I will chime in. In Ca. we usually planted Big Boy or other popular and heritage ones, but they didn't do very well up here in Southern Oregon, ie. Medford. Lucky, lucky me....some bright person cultivated a "Medford" tomato for our area and it is producing tasty and plentiful specimens. They seem to bear all different sizes from salad size to slicing size. And...they are not stopping. Our growing season seems a little short (to this Ca. expat.)with very late spring frosts this year and looking at mid 40 this week with 30's soon to come. But, hey...we have been known to pick raspberries in November on the sheltered side of our house. Nanny

Katie - sunsugars are sun gold by a different seed company.

Mudlady - if you like small tomatoes - try sun golds. They are a small orange cherry tomato that is the perfect balance between acid and sugar.

"I like my tomatoes to have a little bite of acid. Unfortunately, many tomatoes produced are described as low acid. I experiment and buy heirloom plants in the hope of getting some acid.
Nancy"

Yes! I want a tart tomato! Not a sweet one. I dump balsamic and salt on mine for that bite I crave. What varieties do you suggest? Someone, where I worked long ago, once brought in a bag of home grown bright yellow ones that were almost perfectly round and the color of lemons. They were beautifully tart but I never knew what they were.

Eileen

Eileen, I'm thinking those bright yellow tomatoes could be Taxi. I grow Lemon Boy but they are sweet.

Of course, flavor varies with the year, the weather, the soil. What tastes wonderful this year may not like next year's conditions, so each year you have to try again, LOL.

Annie

Posted by annie1992 "-----Of course, flavor varies with the year, the weather, the soil. What tastes wonderful this year may not like next year's conditions, so each year you have to try again, LOL. Annie"

Exactly. Also:
1. The same variety from two seed suppliers will taste different.

2. The same seed from the same company can be different.

3. The same seeds grown in different spots in your garden can be different.

And, regarding Sungold, when it first turn color (yellow) it is kind of tart. When it is kind of orange, it will be a good balance of tart/sweet, and when it is deep orange, it is very sweet.

dcarch

I don't know exactly what tomatoes I am growing--they were identified only as heirlooms. I have a compact cherry plant and the flavor is grest--especially if I pick and eat one warm from the sun!
Nancy

Back to the original question, an Heirloom tomato by definition is open polinated, meaning that you can save the seed from year to year and it will come true, and that it has been in cultivation for at least 50 years.

That being said, my two favorites are Italian Heirloom and Helen's German. Both Beefsteak type, true tomato flavor, excellent for preserving and have done consistently well in my garden.

Steve

I grow about 16 varieties (4 dozen or so plants total) of tomatoes each year. Most are heirlooms. I grow them for flavor not yield. Most aren't pretty but they are delicious. This year was a banner year for tomatoes. I just finished picking for this season and I have yielded several hundred pounds of tomatoes. I have NEVER in 40+ years of gardening ever had the yields I had this year. I had frozen, canned and dried tomatoes and am exhausted and tired of tomatoes. Except of course the tomato sandwich I have every morning for breakfast! LOL

Every year I host a tomato tasting, here are a couple photos (Sorry they are a tad blurry, BB's don't take the best pics.):

Heirloom (sometimes called Heritage in Europe) veggies (not just tomatoes) are simply open pollinated. They pass their characteristics down from generation to generation. If you collect and save the seeds from your favorite heirloom, you'll be able to enjoy the same flavors next year.

Hybrid seeds can't be trusted to do that, as the complicated genetics will come into expression with subsequent generations.

moosemac, your tomatoes look scrumptious! Do you have favorites? What about the crowd favorites at your tomato sampling gathering?

Rhizo,

Thanks. I love tomatoes!

My favorite's in no particular order are:

Paste - Opalka, Heirloom, Poland (This tomato makes the best sauce, paste, ketchup and is great on a sandwich as well. I LOVE this tomato.)

Bicolor - Virginia Sweet, Heirloom, Virginia (Big beautiful beefsteak style, yellow with red streaks. Very fruity.) I also like Orange Russian 114 which is a bicolor ox heart.

Ox Heart - Anna Russian, Heirloom, Russia (Prolific, disease resistant and yummy!)

Black - Black Krim, Heirloom, Origin Black Sea area of Russia (Love the salty, smoky flavor.)

Red - Neves Azorean, Heirloom - Azores (Luscious beefsteak. My go to for a big sandwich slice.) and Thessaloniki, Greek Heirloom (Old time tomato flavor.)

Pink - Caspian Pink, Russian Heirloom (I like this one better than any of the Brandywines.) and Rose de Berne, Heirloom � Switzerland (Perfect round pink fruit. Lovely fresh, full tomato flavor.)

Orange - Persimmon or this year Kellogg's Breakfast (Persimmon is fruity while Kellogg's has a tad more acid flavor. Both are good in Blondie Mary's.)

Cherry - Black Cherry (OMG yum! Big black tomato flavor i.e. smoky sweet in a small package), Sungold (If you haven't tried these gold beauties you don't know what you are missing.) , Juliet (These are prolific. I love to use them for sun dried and or roasted tomatoes) and Matt's Wild Cherry (Half inch in diameter with BIG tomato flavor.)

Did I mention I poke a hole in each cherry tomato and marinate an assortment in lemon vodka, remove from vodka and toss with a little Mrs. Dash table grind and serve with toothpicks for a Bloody Mary appetizer? Easy, pretty and popular, there are never any leftovers!

Office favorites were the Bloody Mary cherries I served at the end of the day. LOL

Moosemac, I want to be your office mate! Pass the spiked 'maters please.

Around here, all the heirlooms to purchase are lumped together under the same heading. I have no way of knowing which is which. I did find some tastier ones at Trader Joe's. Perhaps the farmer's market growers would be helpful but I've missed that window for this year. Next year I will make an effort to grow a few. I confess that I remember too well the big nasty green worms that plagued my grandparents tomato plants. I recall having to pluck them off by hand. Am I right?

Thanks for the tomato variety education.

Annie..I am also in love with "Lemon Boy"! It is so sweet and so prolific..I also love Celebrity and Big Boy and none of them are Heirlooms but are wonderful nevertheless! Whether it be heirloom or not there is nothing like homegrown!
Joann