An heirloom is an open-pollinated plant variety from seeds that have been saved and then passed down generation by generation for at least 50 years. "Open-pollinated" means that the pollination is done via insects, wind or birds. There's a lot more on this topic and subcategories to go into, but thinking of open-pollination as a process by mother nature is good enough for now. Hybrids are different. They are offered by most seed companies, organic included. Hybrids rely on controlled pollination by humans in which two different plant varieties are selected for specific traits and then bred together, ma and pa, to make very desirable offspring. A desirable trait might be some kind of disease resistance or "high yielding." I hope I'm doing an okay job of describing all this.
There's a whole world of gorgeous, fascinating heirloom tomatoes out there that you never see in the store. That's why farmers markets and CSAs are really great! The reason heirlooms are rarely in the big box stores is because they are usually too delicate to ship in mass quantity and have a shorter shelf life. Stores love hybrids that have been bred for long road trips (from east or west coast or Mexico for example) and long shelf life.
Anyway, hybrids are NOT GMOs. GMOs take more time to write about, so I might as well just reference one of my previous posts to help clarify any questions there. Click here for a very brief GMO 101 lesson. And, after getting sort of freaked out about that, here are some pretty photos. Don't miss the Tomato Tips at the very end!
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| Striped German, heirloom |
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| Striped German (heirloom), yellow Sunkist (hybrid), German Johnson (heirloom), Japanese Black Trifele (heirloom), clockwise from the upper left. |
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| The perfect tomato. Arbison, hybrid. |
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| Gnarly! Striped German, heirloom! |
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| Heirlooms get funky, they split easily and their yields are horrible. But they taste better than anything you've ever tried at Trader Joes. |
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| Japanese Black Trifele, heirloom. This isn't the best photo because you often see this variety with green shoulders and a little darker. They are known for their pear shape. This one looks like two grew together.... |
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| Clockwise from upper left, Arbison, German Johnson (pink! heirloom!) and Black Trifele. |
Tomato Tips:
Feel for softness to determine ripeness. Don't expect heirlooms to ripen to a red.
Place tomatoes on the counter, out of direct sun, with space all around each of them. Do not store them in the refrigerator unless you want to RUIN EVERYTHING.
