The Late Edition April-May 1996 · Vol.3 No.2

My Grandfather's Tomatoes

By Michael Sillers

there is little as precious to me as a memory of a garden that grew in my childhood. Over the years I have striven to produce a garden as luxurious and lush as the gardens I remember as a young child. One of my favorite pastimes was searching the thicket of tomato plants for the abundant tomato worms that only a child could appreciate. As wonderful as this sounds, it may be an unattainable goal. Our memories tend to warp things from the way they actually were to the ideals we would have liked them to be if we were still there.

Our grandparents grew a selection of hybrids that have been bred down the years to weed out undesirable traits as well as to enhance desirable ones. Usually the enhancements produced fruit of larger size, often at the expense of taste and juiciness. Things have not changed much since then. If anything, we have progressed further along the same road. Much of the world's agriculture is concentrated in a few varieties of a particular crop and this trend has not escaped the home garden.

Instead of growing the usual cherry or beefsteak tomatoes, why not try some of the varieties our ancestors grew? You will be pleasantly surprised by the full flavour of these heirloom crops. While the yields and size of fruit may be smaller, the taste makes up for any loss. You might also keep in mind that you are preserving a heritage that, without the interest of small scale gardeners, may not survive today.

Early tomatoes had simple descriptive names such as Large Round Red. Some of the better tomato varieties from the turn of the century include Golden Sunray and Brandywine, both named to describe the colour of the fruit.

Alexander Livingstone, an example of an early prolific breeder of tomatoes, came up with Paragon. One of the things Livingstone was after when he developed paragon was a better flavour, but the advent of mechanized agriculture led breeding efforts into another direction entirely. Modern breeders are after tougher skins and longer shelf life - hardly the types of features that make for great eating.

Tomatoes are not the only plants you may want to investigate. There are clubs and seed exchanges that specialize in corn, sweet potatoes, chestnuts, apples and other fruits just to name a few. Beans provide what is probably the most varied selection of heirloom varieties. Beans tend not to cross pollinate, so it is easier to keep a relatively pure example of any given variety. beans are also less prone to disease and tend to be hardier. There are so many varieties of beans that to name them here would take up the entire newsletter.

Heirloom vegetables and fruits are not as difficult to get as you may expect. Most seed companies provide a selection oif heirloom varieties, and most of these are self-pollinating, which means that at the end of the season, you can collect your own seeds for the next year. Check with your favorite comapny or you nmight even see some in the seed rack at the local nursery.

Another option is to contact a seed exchange. Many have membership restrictions but they often only expect their members to supply seeds to their seed bank at the end of the season. For our general climate try Seed Savers Exchange or Scatterseed Project. Other sources you might want to check are magazines Gardens For All and Family Food Garden.

Here's how to reach the people mentioned above:

Gardens For All
180 Flynn Ave.,
Burlington, VT
05401

Family Food garden
464 Commonwealth Ave.,
Boston, MA
02215

Seed Savers exchange
203 Rural Ave.,
Decorah IA
52101

Scatterseed Project
c/o Khadighar
P.O. Box 1167
Farmington, IA
04938