Tomatoes - Heirloom
Tomato History:
Tomatoes are technically a fruit. When the US passed the Tariff Act of 1883 - imposing a 10% tax on imported vegetables - a tomato importer challenged the Act maintaining that tomatoes should be exempt from the tax. John Nix's challenge went as far as the US Supreme Court, but was rejected by Justice Gray who wrote: "Botanically speaking, tomatoes are fruits of a vine, just as are cucumbers, squashes, beans, and peas. But in the common language of the people .... all these are vegetables, which are grown in kitchen gardens, and which, whether eaten cooked or raw, are, like potatoes, carrots, parsnips, turnips, beets, cauliflower, cabbage, celery and lettuce, usually served at dinner in, with or after the soup .... and not, like fruits generally, as dessert."
Today, a few species of tomatoes grow wild in Peru - in the Andes Mountains - the area along the western coast of South America is thought to be where the first tomatoes originated. The tomato has a very colorful history - originating in one hemisphere, becoming popular in another, returning home for intensive breeding that eventually produced todays popular tomatoes. Lycopersicon exculentum is distributed worldwide today, and is a culinary delight!
The wild ancestor of the tomato traveled north from Peru several thousand years before the Spanish began their exploration of Central America in the 16th Century. Evidence that the tomato was domesticated in Central America goes back to the Pre-Columbian cultures in Peru where textiles and pottery were decorated with crops important to them. Aztec writings in Central America mentioned dishes that included peppers, salt and tomato - perhaps the original salsa recipe? The earliest European literature is found in an herbal written by Matthiolus in 1544 - pomi d'oro (golden apple) as a tomato is described in Italy, which supports evidence that the first tomatoes to reach the Old World were a yellow variety which came from the Mediterranean area. It is recorded that the red tomato variety reached Italy via Catholic priests many years after the yellow variety, and that the fruit had very rough skin, unlike todays smooth-skinned varieties.
By 1781, Thomas Jefferson brought tomatoes to his table at his beautiful mountain home Monticello. From this point on, although there were many bumps in the road for the tomato, the western world began to accept this bountiful fruit.
Tomato plants are self-pollinating plants, and become genetically homozygous after a few generations. Tomatoes do not naturally outcross often, and if they do, the seeds will produce plants that are similar to the parents. Because early cultivars did not change much, and were kept in a local area for a long time, they have become known today as heirloom tomatoes.
Heirloom tomatoes date back hundreds of years, and are becoming the most popular of all tomatoes due to their fabulous flavor - low acid and high acid fruit - colors, shapes and culinary applications. Heirloom tomatoes are available in black, dark purple, green striped, yellow and green striped, red, orange, yellow, green, red and black, colors of the rainbow. The shapes of heirloom tomatoes are wide- ranging - like peppers, small like cherries, some weighing in at 5+ pounds, rough-edged, smooth skin, oval, round - and quite visually appealing.
Heirloom tomatoes have names that reflect some of the history - Polish (smuggled into the US on the back of a postage stamp!), Soldacki (arrived in the US from Polish immigrants who settled in Ohio), First Pick (from France), Picardy (1890 in France), Besser and Schellenburg's Favorite (from Germany). The Amish Paste heirloom tomato has been cultivated in Pennsylvania since the 1870's! Elbe, Brandywine, Hillbilly, Old Virginia, Jeff Davis (a very old cultivar that honored the Confederacy's only president, and came from Alabama!), Campbell Soup Company's Ace is still being used for soups today, Hopkins (grows at Edgar Allan Poe's estate in Pennsylvania and is his mother's maiden name), Broad Ripple Yellow Currant, 1884. The stories of the heirloom tomatoes are as varied as the immigrants who carried their seeds to America in hollow canes and waistbands, or the Mortgage Lifter variety that was developed by Charlie from West Virginia during the Great Depression. Charlie owned a radiator repair shop, fell on difficult times as people abandoned their cars, used four plants that produced the largest tomatoes, crossed them over and over again to create a plant that produced two pound tomatoes. Charlie sold his plants for $1 each and maintained that one plant would feed a family of six. Within four years, this gentleman from West Virginia made enough money with his Mortgage Lifter tomato to pay off the $6,000 mortgage on his home!
To be considered an heirloom tomato:
- Variety must have been grown for at least 50 years
- Variety must be stable and able to reproduce itself
- Variety has a known history regarding area of origin, people who used the tomato or outstanding qualities
From the Brandywine, Banana, Cherokee Purple (high acid and terrific on a white pizza with walnuts and chevre), Black Krim, Orange Strawberry, Burgess Stuffing, Yellow Stuffing, Yellow Pear, Red Pear, Green Grape, Chiapas, and the many varieties mentioned above, it is that time of the year for the beautiful heirloom tomatoes.