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Heirloom Tomatoes: Are They Really Heirloom?

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Let’s be clear. I love heirloom tomatoes.

I may raise the hackles of some heirloom seed purveyors by telling you that there is a great deal of misrepresentation out there in the heirloom tomato world.

Not everything called an heirloom tomato is an heirloom tomato. Many varieties featured in seed catalogs are actually new intentional creations or chance hybridizations that have been selected and stabilized. They are not old—they are not heirlooms. Meaning that they have not been handed down for generations, nor do they have some historic association. 

Some catalogs are more revealing than others about the history of the variety, and often they don’t know much about the origination of the seed themselves.  As heirloom tomatoes have become increasing popular many avid gardeners and seed savers have been playing with crosses to create new varieties and some claim them to be chance discoveries from King Tut’s Tomb, to Grandma’s Tilly’s garden. Sometimes people simply don’t  remember where they got  variety and give it their own name.  In some cases names have been purposely changed by individual or companies.  A  legitimate heirloom may have been saved independently in five different locations and ends up with five different names. So we have deception, memory loss, history loss, and renaming as factors to add confusion to the understanding of what is an authentic heirloom

Most people could care less about this. Nor do they need to care. It is nice to know what you are talking about and not promote inaccurate information, yet for the average gardener, taste and looks are at the top of the list. Dedicated seed savers and food historians may be prepared to exchange  blows over this topic

What is an heirloom?  Right away you are in somewhat ill defined territory. There is not an official registry as with canine breeds for  what constitutes an “official” heirloom.

Traditionally an heirloom has been handed down in a family or community for two or three generations or more. The seed may have originated in a catalog, or may predate the advent of seed catalogs in the early 19th century.  A variety could have for example been brought to Spain from Mexico by the Spanish, traveled through Europe, selected and reselected over the years and brought to the United States  by an Italian immigrant 200 years later.  An heirloom should predate the widespread advent of hybrid tomatoes in the middle of the 20th century making a general definition of an heirloom tomato a variety that is older than 60 years at this point.

This is a moving target because we have to keep backdating the definition. Now if someone during the last thirty years created an heirloom type tomato as for example Tom Wagner did with his famous Green Zebra tomato, in another thirty years would that then be an heirloom?  Good question.  In the example of Green Zebra most people assume it is an heirloom because it looks like a heirloom. Even Scientific American got that  wrong.

There are a host of true heirlooms out there, as well as varieties I term historic. Historic varieties are those for which we generally have a written documentation whether from a seed trial, seed catalog, diary, gardening manual etc.

When you look at some seed catalogs, or for example the Seed Savers Exchange Yearbook, the list of [heirloom] tomatoes can be voluminous. Heirloom tomatoes come in a very wide array of sizes, shapes, and colors.  If you really want a true heirloom tomato read the descriptions carefully, and hope they are honest. If you are growing for a history museum make sure you do your research. If you just want a different looking and [hopefully] good tasting tomato then go ahead, buy what looks good and have fun.

 

 


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