Fun with Tomatoes

Tomatoes are one of the most popular crops that we grow in our garden. In fact, they are the second largest planting that we do (right behind strawberries)! What most people don’t know is that there are many, many varieties of tomatoes and they all have their own special qualities.

Here at Piedmont Produce we grew more than five different varieties of tomatoes this year! The majority of the tomatoes you see on our shelves are Celebrity and Mountain Merit. They are both your ‘standard’ large, red tomato. They are what we call hybrid tomatoes. That means that some super-smart scientist bred specific tomato plants together for generations and generations of tomatoes to create a variety that would have exactly the disease resistance, color, flavor, and size that they want! Pretty cool if you ask me. They are a ‘hybrid’ of multiple tomato plants.

I also picked these varieties specifically because they are determinant plants. Most people that have a home garden look for indeterminate plants. That means that they continually produce all season long. Determinant plants generally produce one, large crop and then die off. Most large commercial farms prefer determinant plants because of the labor cost that goes into picking several times. To keep having tomatoes all season long we have multiple plantings. I put in our first planting of tomatoes in early April. Then I put in a second planting about three weeks later. That way when the first planting would be finishing up its production, the next would be ready. We could pick the first planting clean and then move right on to the next without ever having a gap in production! It takes some planning, but definitely relieves some of the frustration of hunting for new tomatoes on the same vines every week. In this picture you can see the newer planting in the foreground and the previous planting in the background.

So determinant and indeterminate are opposites. What’s the opposite of a hybrid tomato? I’m sure everyone has heard this term but never really knew what it meant (I was right there with you). The opposite of hybrid is heirloom! Heirloom tomatoes are the ‘old school’ varieties.

Heirloom tomatoes are naturally bred the old fashioned way. Many of the heirloom varieties have not changed in hundreds of years! They are generally thought to have a better taste than conventional hybrid tomatoes, but because they have not had a scientist breed the negative qualities out of them, they generally lack the shelf life and are usually not as good looking or uniform as their hybrid relatives.

This year we grew Cherokee Purple tomatoes as our heirloom variety. We also grew some Roma tomatoes this year as well. While not technically an heirloom variety, they are open-pollinated (pollinates themselves the natural way like an heirloom does). They definitely have a distinct shape and flavor. Most people like to use Romas for canning and making salsa!

Now that you are a tomato expert, come on out to our store and try them all! See which ones you like the best and let us know.

Get to know your farm!