Grandpa saved seed from only the best tomato to pass down through the years.
Heirloom tomatoes have found their way into North Carolina gardens. Heirlooms exude flavors and textures seldom found in today's modern varieties. When flavor, rather than storage and shipping quality, was the most important component in a tomato, gardeners saved the seed of their very best tomato for next year's crop. After generations of selecting and passing down seeds, heirloom varieties are producing the very best tasting tomatoes. With average high temperatures in July ranging from 80 to 96 degrees Fahrenheit across the state and a long growing season, every family should enjoy these heat loving heirloom tomatoes, available at choice North Carolina nurseries. Does this Spark an idea?
Heavy Weight Heirlooms
The heirloom tomato Mortgage Lifter, Grampa Charlie's produces an abundance of 1 to 2 pound fruits. Developed by M. C. Byles (Radiator Charlie) who grew the tomato and sold them for $1 apiece, he managed to pay off his mortgage from the sales, according to Tomatofest.com.
Anna Russian produces heart-shaped, juicy fruit weighing in at 1 pound and originally hails from Russia.
An heirloom with its roots in North Carolina and Virginia is German Johnson. It sports large round tomatoes with very few seeds, again in the large 1-pound size.
Heirloom Pastes
Choose an heirloom paste tomato for the best tasting sauce.
With heirloom's history of being the very best tasting tomato, when a paste type tomato is grown, it should be an heirloom. Passed down from southern Italy, Principe Borghese is a 2-inch-long plum tomato. It bears heavily and is excellent for drying or sauces. A paste tomato descending from Poland is Opalka, producing a heavy crop of sweet plum-shaped fruit 4 to 6 inches long. North Carolina gardeners enjoy eating these fresh, as well as cooking them up into a sauce.
Cherry Heirloom
The Pennsylvania Dutch grew and passed down the cherry tomato Riesentraube since the 1850s. It is a German heirloom that grows clusters of 20 to 40 small oval tomatoes that have the taste of a large beefsteak.
A yellow cherry tomato widely grown is Dr. Carolyn. It produces clumps of six sweet fruits on large plants. Both thrive on the hot patios of North Carolina now.
Odd Colored Heirloom
Some heirloom varieties are sweet and ripe when their color is green.
Noir de Crimee is a purple-black tomato of Russian descent. It produces a high yield of sweet fruit in the 6-ounce size.
Yellow Perfection provides an abundance of small, yellow, 2-ounce juicy tomatoes. This one comes from a British history line and has also found its niche in North Carolina.
A delicious sweet tomato that is bright green when it's fully ripe is Aunt Ruby's German Green. Passed down from a German family, it produces large beefsteak size fruit.
Tags: North Carolina, best tasting, very best, best tomato, cherry tomato