Heirloom Tomatoes

If you’ve ever eaten an heirloom tomato, you know there’s no going back to the assembly-line tomatoes from the grocery store. These beauties are colorful, sweet and like nothing you’ve ever seen. Heirloom tomatoes are part of long-term seed saving efforts focused on preserving the quality and uniqueness of tomato varieties.

If you’ve ever eaten an heirloom tomato, you know there’s no going back to the assembly-line tomatoes from the grocery store. These beauties are colorful, sweet and like nothing you’ve ever seen. Heirloom tomatoes are part of long-term seed saving efforts focused on preserving the quality and uniqueness of tomato varieties.

My boyfriend picked up tomatoes from the grocery store the other night to add to a salad. Although I appreciate and respect the effort that goes into growing tomatoes in winter and shipping them all over the country, I must admit there was something lacking. The flavor was bitter and watery; it could have been anything–it didn’t taste like a tomato. Then and there, I made the decision—no more grocery store tomatoes. And potentially, no more winter tomatoes.

The jump from tomato hybrid to heirloom was easy for me: If I’m growing for flavor, I want nothing but the best. So, I’m ordering plants: The “Kings of Color” heirloom tomato collection from Burpee. Four ready-to-plant transplants are only $14.95–an incredible deal compared to the $5/pound for over-ripe, shipped heirlooms at the store. They’ll ship to me when the time is right for planting; at the end of February where I live.

I’ll eat huge, delicious, colorful heirloom tomatoes all spring and summer… Maybe even keep a plant in a container to bring inside when the weather is too warm or cool for it to do right in the garden. I’ll figure out the rest of the details when they arrive, and I’ll be sure to let you know what happens!