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  • From: "Tradingpost" <tradingpost@gilanet.com>
  • To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [Livingontheland] Beautiful on the inside
  • Date: Thu, 19 Aug 2004 21:53:11 -0600

http://leisure.newstimes.com/story.php?id=64195

Beautiful on the inside
By Melinda McGarty Webb

SPECIAL TO THE NEWS-TIMES
Melinda McGarty Webb
A variety of heirloom tomatoes from Waldingfield Farm in Washington, Conn.,
ranges from red to purple to almost white.
Down a peaceful country road in Washington, Conn., rows upon rows of tomato
vines stand bursting with yellow, orange, red, and even purple fruit, all
glistening in Monday's early-morning rain.

On the periphery of the field, Quincy Horan, who owns Waldingfield Farm with
his brothers Daniel and Patrick, surveys the piles of already-picked produce
that fill his family's tiny farm stand.

After the weekend rush, many of the more exotic-looking varieties of tomatoes
are gone, but those that remain are by no means ordinary.

These are not your average, run-of-the-mill-looking tomatoes. Not one is even
marginally spherical or uniform in color. Like many heirlooms, they are a
ragtag bunch covered with ruts, blemishes and blotches. <
A Mortgage Lifter tomato can weigh more than 4 pounds.
br>

But while heirloom tomatoes may be the ugly stepsisters of the nightshade
family in terms of appearance, in terms of flavor they are undeniably the
belles of the ball.

"They're so delicious," Horan said. "But for the average American consumer,
if you put these up against a perfect red Beefsteak, (the heirloom is) going
to get left in the dust – just because of the way it looks."

The Horans sell their heirloom tomatoes primarily to restaurateurs, who
appreciate their unique taste and the diversity of color they can add to a
dish, and at farmers' markets, their farm stand and four supermarkets.

"It can sometimes be hard to sell them to stores," Horan said. "But at a
farmer's market, it's not a problem. The people who come are familiar with
them – they came because they read about heirlooms in a food magazine or saw
them on TV."

One of the most frequent uses of an heirloom is in tomato salads. Horan's
favorite method is to grab an assortment of five or six kinds of varying
colors, slice them into big chunks and dress them in a delicate vinaigrette.

Heavy dressings, he said, such as blue cheese or ranch, mask their inherent
sweetness.

"These tomatoes should be really ripe when you eat them," Horan said. "And
they should be tasted solo, if possible. Their flavor stands on its own."

Waldingfield Farm, with more than 20,000 certified organic heirloom tomato
plants of 85 varieties, may be the largest producer of its kind in New
England, according to the farmer, yet it limits its distribution to a radius
of about 150 miles.

"That's about the farthest I would drive an order in my truck," explains
Horan, a tall blond man who at the age of 34 has already been farming for 15
years.

That's because heirlooms' thin, tender skins are not conducive to long trips,
and their enzyme-laden interiors ripen more quickly than those of hybrids.

But what exactly is the difference between an heirloom and a hybrid?

"Taylor's Guide to Heirloom Vegetables" by Benjamin Watson, part of the
Taylor's Guides to Gardening series published by Houghton Mifflin Co.,
defines an heirloom vegetable as one that meets three criteria: It is must be
open pollinated, have been in existence more than 50 years, and possess a
story of its own.

When he says "open pollinated," he means if you plant the vegetable's seeds,
they will grow true to type. The seeds will produce a plant just like the one
that bore the fruit from which they came.

How you do this is quite simple, according to John Holbrook, who, with his
wife Lynn, grows more than 40 varieties of heirloom tomatoes at Holbrook Farm
in Bethel.

"You pick your most perfect tomato," he explained. "You cut it in half and
separate the seeds from inside the seed cavities, then you place them on a
paper towel and let them dry for a few days."

Plant, and repeat. That's all there is to it.

Generations of the Holbrook family have employed this method, and some of the
varieties John currently uses were passed on to him by his grandfather and
great uncle almost 50 years ago.

But you can't do this with your average garden-variety tomato, or one you
pick up at the supermarket. In fact, you can't propagate hybrids in this
manner at all.

A hybrid, after all, is the offspring of two genetically dissimilar parents,
or varieties of plants.

With the exception of a handful of varieties that began as hybrids but have
been stabilized over the years, you can't just harvest the seeds from a
hybrid tomato and hope to reproduce a similar fruit. The seeds will either be
sterile, or you will end up with a plant that resembles one of the two mixed
to produce the hybrid.

So in order to reproduce a hybrid, you have to order seeds from the seed
company. Funny how that works, isn't it?

One of the exceptions to that rule, according to Watson's book, is the "Sweet
100" cherry tomato. Like others of its kind, it's no longer truly a hybrid,
but it's too recently introduced to qualify as an heirloom.

Among produce that does qualify as heirloom, "Perhaps the variety was brought
to America by immigrants, or saved and improved over the years by a single
family or religious orderŸ.Ÿ.Ÿ.Ÿ" Watson writes.

"Perhaps it figured importantly as a staple or ceremonial crop for indigenous
peoples. Or perhaps it has simply become well suited to the climate and
growing conditions of a particular region."

In an heirloom seed catalog, there are hundreds upon hundreds of varieties.
From the Abe Lincoln and the Airyleaf, to the Zapotec and the Zogola, the
names alone are something to behold.

And there is a story behind each one. What's the origin, for example, of the
Mortgage Lifter, which at often more than four pounds is the largest heirloom
tomato grown at both Waldingfield and Holbrook farms?

According to Tomato Fest, www.tomatofest.com, an online catalog of 430
varieties of organic heirloom seeds, the Mortgage Lifter, aka Radiator
Charlie's Mortgage Lifter, was developed in the 1930s by M.C. Byles, a
radiator repair mechanic affectionately known as "Radiator Charlie."

Byles crossbred four of the largest tomatoes he could find in the 1940s, the
catalog says, then sold his plants for $1 each. Farmers would drive from as
far as 200 miles away to buy his seedlings, they say, and he was able to pay
off his $6,000 mortgage in six years.

The Brandywine, possibly the best-known and most popular heirloom, was named
after the region in which it was developed – Pennsylvania's Brandywine
Valley, according to Holbrook.

Tomatoes are said to have originated in South America in present-day Peru,
where eight species are believed to still grow wild in the Andes Mountains.

By the time European explorers arrived in the New World, the tomato had made
its way into Central America and Mexico, according to the Epicurious food
dictionary, www.epicurious.com.

"The Spanish carried plants back home from Mexico, but it took some time for
tomatoes to be accepted in Spain because it was thought that — like various
other members of the nightshade family — they were poisonous," that
publication says.

"Some tomato advocates, however, claimed the fruit had aphrodisiac powers
and, in fact, the French called them pommes d'amour, 'love apples.'Ÿ"

The tomato gained popularity in the United States in the early part of the
last century and, though technical a fruit, is today one of our country's
favorite "vegetables" — a classification the government gave the tomato for
trade purposes in 1893, according to Epicurious.

Over the years, before agriculture became the big business it is today,
individual farmers saved seeds from their finest tomatoes for the following
year's crop. They would often base their decisions on taste, texture or aroma.

But as times changed, so did the very nature of farming. Small family farms
gave way to corporate farms that planted hundreds if not thousands of acres.
Their produce sometimes had to travel across the country before arriving at
its destination.

By necessity, farmers began to favor different characteristics.

When many of us think of a quality tomato, we think of a tender, juicy fruit
with thin skin. But a tomato like that might not survive a cross-country trip
very well, so farmers started breeding hardier tomatoes with thicker skins,
and picking them before they ripened so they would last longer.

Ever wonder how those pink orbs you find in the supermarket in the middle of
winter get that way? The green fruits are ripened with ethylene gas or in
special warming rooms.

It stands to reason that if you're eating a tomato in Connecticut in the
middle of winter, it's not locally grown.

But this time of year, it's a different story. We are right now approaching
the height of the heirloom season, which will end with the first frost.

While the tomatoes are at their peak, both Waldingfield and Holbrook Farms
have stands at which you can taste some of the varieties, and a tasting
festival this weekend in Cromwell will allow sampling of an even wider
variety.

The third annual "Tomato/To-mah-to" Heirloom Tomato Tasting Feast will be
Sunday from 2 to 5 p.m. at Upper Forty Organic Farm, 86 Nooks Hill Road,
Cromwell.

For an admission fee of $40, or $25 for students, attendees can sample 100
varieties of heirlooms and vine-ripened organic tomatoes, and tomato-related
treats including fresh mozzarella, olive oils and artisan breads.

If you have a hard time choosing a favorite, take heart. Even farmers
themselves can't pick.

Were he forced to choose, John Holbrook said his favorites would be the
Brandywine and Dottie's Evergreen, which as the name would suggest, remains
green.

His wife, Lynn, prefers the Pineapple, a yellow tomato with a red-striped
interior that is so sweet people sometimes use it to make wine.

"But that's not a fair question," John said. "It's like asking me which of my
kids I like best."

#


For more information on the tomato festival at Upper Forty Organic Farm, call
(860) 223-6200.

Waldingfield Farm, 24 East St., Washington, Conn., can be reached at (860)
868-7270, or on the Web at www.waldingfieldfamr.com.

Holbrook Farm, 45 Turkey Plain Road (Route 53 South), Bethel, can be reached
at (203) 792-0561, or at www.holbrookfarm.net.




  • [Livingontheland] Beautiful on the inside, Tradingpost, 08/19/2004

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