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  • From: "Tradingpost" <tradingpost@gilanet.com>
  • To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [Livingontheland] SHOPPERS EATING UP HEIRLOOM TOMATOES
  • Date: Sat, 19 Nov 2005 19:24:47 -0700


Wed, Aug. 24, 2005
Growing in popularity
SHOPPERS EATING UP HEIRLOOM TOMATOES
By Aleta Watson Mercury News
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/living/food/12461123.htm

Generations after American consumers learned to accept tomatoes bred for
transport rather than taste, old-fashioned varieties are making a comeback in
the produce department.

Heirloom tomatoes with names like Marvel Stripe and Black Krim have been the
late summer favorites of Northern California's backyard gardeners, farmers
market shoppers and top chefs for nearly a decade. Now they're rapidly moving
into mainstream supermarkets.

Capitalizing on the trend, TV chef Emeril Lagasse came out this summer with
his own brand of heirloom tomatoes -- grown in San Juan Bautista and
distributed to supermarkets by Produce Exchange in Livermore -- after testing
the concept with a small venture last year.

At area Whole Foods markets, heirloom sales are growing by 25 percent a year.

Why are shoppers willing to pay as much as $5 a pound, more than twice the
price of conventional tomatoes, for these eccentric varieties with odd
shapes, unexpected colors, flaws and scars?

``These are real tomatoes,'' said Rich Dilly, produce buyer for the three
Cosentino's markets in the South Bay. ``They have funky shapes but they
actually taste good.''

Old-time taste

Picked ripe and usually grown organically, heirloom varieties taste like
tomatoes used to, before blemish-free beauty and sturdy shipping qualities
became prime considerations in the marketplace. They're the tomatoes family
gardeners long have treasured for flavors running the spectrum from sugar
sweet to tartly acidic.

Initially, gardeners defined heirlooms as open-pollinated tomatoes grown from
seeds handed down from one generation to the next for at least 50 years. But
the term is used far more loosely now and includes tomatoes introduced by
seed companies before 1940 as well as tomatoes created recently by
cross-pollination.

``They have character, they usually have history, they have unusual colors
and shapes,'' said Renee Shepherd. She's the owner of Renee's Garden Seeds in
Felton and is credited with helping introduce heirloom tomatoes to California
food circles in the 1980s.

Going mainstream

Shepherd sees the growing acclaim for antique tomatoes as a natural outgrowth
of the Bay Area's fascination with food. From a few pioneering farmers and
trend-setting chefs like Alice Waters, the demand for heirlooms spread to
farmers markets, specialty stores and -- in the last few years -- to
mainstream markets like Albertsons. The chain recently put heirlooms on
special for $2.99 a pound at its Northern California stores.

``Just like organics have gone mainstream,'' Shepherd said, ``Heirlooms are
going mainstream, too.''

Specialty grocer Whole Foods, one of the biggest retailers of heirlooms, now
sells almost 20 tons of the tomatoes a week in August and September at its 23
Pacific Northwest stores, including 19 in the Bay Area, according to Karen
Christensen, the chain's regional produce coordinator.

Still, the overall market remains so small that the California Tomato
Commission doesn't track heirloom sales. Carolyn Hughes, the commission's
vice president of marketing, notes that hothouse-grown ``on the vine''
tomatoes are the bestsellers in retail terms.

Happy Boy Farms of Watsonville, one of the state's largest heirloom growers,
cultivates about 80 acres of tomatoes and sells them to specialty stores and
distributors as well as at 42 farmers markets a week.

Owner Greg Beccio started with five acres in Santa Cruz County nearly a
decade ago. Now he grows some 70 varieties on land in four counties. One of
the largest farms is a 33-acre plot on Ferguson Road outside Gilroy, where
row after row of Brandywines, Green Zebras, Red Oxhearts and more ripen in
the sun. Boxes of just-picked tomatoes are stacked at the ends of the rows.

``There's definitely an awakening awareness of heirloom tomatoes in the
marketplace,'' said Beccio, who ships about half of his tomatoes to points
east.

Badges of honor

He picks up a Cherokee Purple with concentric rings of scars around the stem
end and several cracks in the sides. Such flaws are considered badges of
honor on heirlooms.

``You take what you get,'' Beccio said. ``We're selling an ugly tomato.''

Gary Ibsen of Carmel remembers when the odd appearance of heirlooms was a
major liability -- when he was carting 20-pound cases to markets and
restaurants in the back of his car more than a decade ago.

``People didn't know what to do with all those colors and shapes,'' said
Ibsen, who sells heirlooms and their seeds through his company, TomatoFest.

He's been a tomato evangelist for years, introducing thousands of people to
old-style tomatoes at his annual tasting festival, also called TomatoFest.
This year's event, on Sept. 11, is the 14th.

The growing popularity of heirlooms delights him. ``A lot of people who
turned me down, who didn't want all these crazy colors, are carrying them
now.''

Still, Ibsen warns that mainstream supermarkets, with their long distribution
chains, may not be the place to find heirlooms at their best. He suggests the
uninitiated get their first taste at farmers markets or specialty stores with
good local connections.

``With heirloom tomatoes, you encourage people to buy them from someone who's
growing them locally,'' he said. ``If they're distributed, they may be picked
a little green.''




  • [Livingontheland] SHOPPERS EATING UP HEIRLOOM TOMATOES, Tradingpost, 11/19/2005

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