What better way to move towards sustainable gardening than to save your own seeds. Another plus is that as you save seeds from the best of the best in your garden you will be selecting the best for the micro climate in your garden. In a sense, you will be developing your own micro variety…in 50 years it will be your very own heirloom!

There are many methods for preparing your seeds from tomatoes but the most widely used method is the fermentation method.

Fermenting Tomato Seeds

Why bother with fermentation?

The fermentation of the tomato seed will aid in removing the gel sack around each seed
but more importantly – reduce the chances of seed bourne diseases and enhance germination.

Choose the right tomato

First, you must choose an open pollinated tomato or non-hybrid variety – most heirlooms fit the bill. If you don’t, this is what will happen
Second, pick the tastiest, largest heirloom tomato from your most healthy plant. (Of course, if it is a small variety pick the largest of these small fruit)

Saving Tomato Seeds

Saving your tomato seeds with the fermentation method

• Find a cup or recycled deli or yogurt containers. Mark on the container the variety of tomato.
• Take your tomato and cut in half across the ‘equator’
• Squeeze out the seeds as if you were squeezing a lemon into your container. If you don’t want to mangle your tomato you can dig out the seeds with the tip of a knife or small spoon.
• Add enough water to cover the seeds by about 1/2 an inch
• Loosely cover the top and place in a warm spot (70-80F) for a week
• Scoop off the moldy scum that has formed on the top and pour the seeds into a fine mesh strainer. Rinse with cold water.
• Shake off the excess water by tapping the bottom of the strainer on a dish towel.
• Invert the seeds onto a piece of waxed paper that has been labeled with the variety name. Don’t worry about spreading the seeds out too much as they will easily separate when dry.
• Let dry for at least 4-5 days.
• Store in a paper envelope labeled with the variety name and date.

Save to plant in the spring. These seeds should last quite a few years though the germination rate will decrease as the seeds age.

With the holidays coming up, seeds make nifty gifts for your gardening friends.

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Yesterday, we took a day trip down to Ben Lomond, CA home of Love Apple Farm. Farmer Cynthia Sandberg gave us and 30 others an incredibly informative class on growing heirloom tomatoes.

I first heard of Love Apple Farm when my sister sent me the link to her page on “How to Grow Better Tomatoes”. It was already June when she sent it to me so I didn’t get a chance to try out her methods, though I have half heartedly done some extra fertilizing every so often. The tomatoes do perk up a few days after I have fertilized them so will get into better habits next season.

You may ask, why take a class when you can just read the guide on her website?
Wow, I have to say you will get so much more information from the class – the extra hints, important details, the latest new technique and answers to your specific tomato growing questions.

Plus, her garden is beautiful – not just full of over 100 varieties of 8 and 9 foot heirloom tomato plants but gorgeous zinnias of all hues, sunflowers and lots of other vegetables as she is the kitchen garden for the world renown Manresa restaurant.

Here are some pictures from our day:

The rare Litchi Tomato aka Morelle de Balbis

Large Heirloom on the Vine

Cynthia Showing us the Proper Way to Shade a Tomato Fruit and to Prune a Tomato Plant

Heirloom tomatoes tend to be indeterminant – that is, the size of the plant is not limited by it’s genes so they can can keep growing and growing under optimal conditions. To keep them healthy and off the ground she likes to make cages out of 7 foot concrete reinforcing wire. Whoa…and does she ever need all 7 feet of that cage.

Cynthia showed us a number of methods to prevent tomato sunburn, when to prune and the proper way to prune.

She also stressed there are 100’s of tomato diseases – not just limited to the few commonly talked about wilt diseases – which by the way she sees as too often misdiagnosed. She pointed out that many of the signs and symptoms of wilt may in fact be a specific mineral deficiency thus she recommended soil testing from a company called Timberleaf.

This point comes up time and time again from every gardener and farmer out there: Properly amending the soil will prevent nutrient deficiencies and thus many diseases (much like people) and will improve the quality of your vegetables.

There was just so much more information! We both came away from the class with a lot of practical information (and info we can apply to growing other vegetables) that we feel will make us so much better gardeners.Thanks Cynthia for a well organized and information packed class!

Now, it’s time to get the winter vegetables in…

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Let’s add some history, and dare I say “flavor” to the discussion…

Perhaps we can rename it Charles Darwin versus Gregor Mendel

What’s an Heirloom

In broad terms an heirloom is an open-pollinated fruit. That simply means bees and wind carry out the pollination process. However, not all open-pollinated tomatoes are heirloom.

With heirlooms, the seed is kept “true”. What that means is: if you plant seeds from a specific heirloom variety, it will produce that variety. So if you grew Mortgage Lifters (an heirloom tomato) and replanted the seeds, you’d get another Mortgage Lifter.

Heirlooms are more Darwinian… the strongest survive. AND, they adapt to specific areas. Meaning, California Mortgage Lifters grown in California will adapt to the California climate as will Mortgage Lifters grown in Georgia adapt to the Georgia climate. This process plays out over generations of seeds/plants.

As far as I know, there’s not an absolute definition of heirloom.
Many will tie “heirloom” to pre-1940. This is when Mendelian techniques began to take over commercial tomato farming, i.e., “hybridization” (more below).
Others will argue that heirloom is a technique rather than a vintage.

Flavors of Heirloom

Going with the technique classification, Heirloom can be sub-categorized:

1. Commercial Heirloom – existed before 1940
2. Family Heirloom – a variety grown from seed and handed down through generations within a family
3. Created Heirloom – cross pollinating two varieties, collecting the seeds from the best plants and, over 5 generations, “dehybridizing” it. So basically, you create a new variety
4. Mystery Heirloom – a bit like the created heirloom, only done without human intervention

What’s Great About Heirlooms

The point of hybridizing is to make a limited few “herculean” varieties. On paper that seems brilliant. In reality, decreasing biodiversity shrinks the gene pool and makes the entire species more vulnerable to disease, infestation and weather change.

So many will (vehemently) argue heirlooms are the only way to go.

Heirlooms are more flavorful. And they vary in color, size, shape and time to maturity.
They’re also more vulnerable to pests and disease. And they tend to yield less per plant.

The Hybrid

Gregor Mendel is most noted as the “father of modern genetics”, or simply – the pea guy.

Hybrids are basically “built by design”.
Specifically, ye old “filial generation” (F1) hybrid is created by crossing two different parent varieties to produce an offspring with the most desirable characteristics of each parent.

A hybrid does not stay “true” from generation to generation. What that means is, if you regrow the seeds from one generation, you’ll not get the same kind of tomato. You’ll likely get one of the parent varieties or something close to it.

Sidebar: In fact, many of today’s hybrids use some kind of cherry tomato as one parent because cherries are pretty disease resistant and hearty. So if you’ve experienced “volunteer” tomato plants popping up and they always seem to be cherry, it could be the result of seeds germinating from a hybrid you grew the prior season.

Why Hybridize?

It’s that “best of both worlds” thing. Hybrids tend to be from a variety that has strong disease resistant characteristics and a variety with another desirable characteristic such as early maturity.

Hybrids are very uniform in color and shape. And they all mature at about the same time. So from an industrial point of view, they’re very productive, reliable, predictable and consistent. And as mentioned above, they’re often more disease resistant.
All in all, more forgiving of the grower and the growing environment.

New seeds are produced every year (mostly “off shore”, cheaper labor). They simply create the cross with the original two species through controlled hand pollination to produce a new set of seeds.

Ah, That Tomato Taste

Not all hybrids taste like cardboard. Tho heirlooms definitely offer a broader and deeper array of flavors.
Some of the hybrids today are bred for taste… for eating by people with palates. Popular varieties are Early Girl, Celebrity and Carmello.

It’s safe to say if the tomato was grown by a large commercial grower, it’s a hybrid. You can find smaller farms locally and at Farmer’s Markets that grow heirlooms, but in the big-acre tomato world is all hybrid all the time.

Acres of tomatoes – California isn’t all surf and sand

Although tomatoes will grow in all United States, 95% of the 12.7 million pounds of processed tomatoes are grown (and processed) in California.

Prior to the 1960’s – when tomato picking became a machine thing rather than a people thing – there were over 4,000 tomato farmers. Today: 225… farming 277,000 acres.

Of course they grow hybrids – generally “San Marzano”, bred to be higher in fiber to withstand, umm, rough handling.

They’re also higher in sugar and lower in lycopene and other beneficial nutrients.

Oh, and malathion is often used (to limit the damage from sugar beet leafhopper).

The average California tomato farm is over 1,000 acres. The cost to produce an acre of tomatoes is $2,700 (with costs rising). That’s for seeds, fertilizer, chemicals, water, diesel and labor. So a 1,000 acre farm is in $2.7 million before seeing that first tomato turn pink. It’s big – and risky – business.

Unlike heirlooms, processing tomatoes are commodities (quantity over quality) which currently fetch the grower about 3.5 cents a pound.

Tomato paste is the most produced product – 70-75%. Which is then sold to manufacturers and appears on your grocery store shelves as ketchup, pasta and pizza sauces and soups.

What varieties do you grow?

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• Tomatoes are self fertile. It’s flowers contain both male and female parts. All it needs is a gentle breeze to become fertile
• Tomato fruit sets best at night time temperatures between 60F and 70F – a hormone is released facilitating the fertilization process
• A study from Florida State University showed that high nitrogen and potassium fertilization has a detrimental effect on tomato flavor
• Tomatoes contain the phytonutrient Lycopene. Human studies have found lycopene in combination with it’s other numerous nutrients to be protective against a number of cancers and have cardiovascular benefits. Cooked organic tomato products have the most lycopene.
• Who knows how many varieties of heirlooms exists? One website boasts over 600 varieties of seeds.
• Of all tomato varieties there are over 7500
• The world’s largest tomato weighed in at 7 pounds, 12 ounces and was grown by Gordon Graham of Edmond, Oklahoma in 1986.
• A tomato tree at Epcot center in Florida had a harvest of more than 32,000 tomatoes weighing in at 1151.84 pounds
• Botanically tomatoes are a berry but is widely considered a vegetable
• All parts of the tomato plant are poisonous except the fruit
• La Tomatina is the largest tomato food fight with an estimated 40,000 participants and over 100 tons of tomatoes. Held yearly in Bunyol, Valencia in Spain, squishy love apples fly for one hour starting at 11 am. This year the tomatoes will launch August 27th. It’s not too late to book your flight for the big fight.

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I picked a few of the Romas, Early Girls and my fav Celebrity . One more reason I like Celebrity is that is has fewer seeds than your average tomato (so, fewer seeds in the sauce). Only 4 pounds in all but I figured I’d put up a few jars anyway.

The basic recipe I used:

• 4 pounds of washed tomatoes, tops removed
• 1/4 onion, small dice
• 1 small green pepper (I used a small poblano from the garden)
• 4 cloves garlic, smashed & roughly chopped
• 2 sprigs of oregano, leaves removed from stem and roughly chopped
• 12 large basil leaves, roughly chopped
• 1 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt (Redmond)
• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1 Tablespoon balsamic vinegar
• 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

Canning is not difficult though it is best to follow the directions carefully from such USDA publications as ‘The Complete Guide to Canning’

Here’s a visual guide to my process:

Gathering up ingredients for Tomato Sauce

 

Removing tomato stem ends with the famous "Tomato Shark"

 

Saute onions, pepper, garlic, herbs, sea salt and black pepper in extra virgin olive oil

 

Add tomatoes and balsamic vinegar. Simmer until desired consistency is reached. I usually reduce by 1/3

 

Filling hot sterilized 1/2 pint jars with hot finished sauce

 

Boiling filled jars in a hot water bath – a stock pot with a cake rack on the bottom. Notice there is 1-2" water above the top of the jar. These will boil for 35 minutes.

 

Finished Jars of Tomato Sauce. Plum jam in the background from the day before.

Canned tomato sauce… delicious in QUALITY if not quantity.
enjoy.

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I never knew tomatoes had flavor until I tasted my first vine ripened tomato way back in my college days. After that experience, I only bought tomatoes in season and most summers after that grew my own.

Tomatoes, originally from the Andes, have been alternately revered and feared. In the same family as Belladonna, tomato leaves are indeed poisonous but its fruit, the tomato, is not. Later, tomatoes were thought to be an aphrodisiac and called ‘the Apple of Love.’ In Italy, tomatoes were much more accepted and known as pomodoro or golden apple referring to the first tomatoes which were probably yellow cherry size tomatoes.

At the turn of the century, it was thought that tomatoes caused cancer. Then it was later ‘discovered’ that by cooking for at least 3 hours the toxins could be inactivated. Curiously enough, scientist have learned that the long cooking activates the mighty antioxidant Lycopene which is so very abundant in tomatoes. Lycopene supports eye health, the cardiovascular system and some studies indicate may prevent many types of cancer.

After World War I, community farm groups interested in raising awareness of nutrition began programs for youth to start home gardens. Tomatoes became very popular because they were so easy to grow. In fact today, tomatoes are the most popular home garden vegetable and the 3rd most popular canned vegetable.

Tomatoes, did however, take another dark turn in the 50’s and 60’s when profit minded agri-businesses sponsored research to develop small hard thick skinned tomatoes to withstand mechanical harvesting and long distance travel. Flavor was sacrificed hence my childhood experience of pink cardboard flavored tomatoes.

In the past decade, heightened awareness of nutrition and the search for natural flavorful foods has brought about the resurgence of heirloom or pre agri-business varieties of all types of fruits and vegetables including tomatoes.

Heirloom tomatoes refer to tomato varieties that were grown in America’s past and have recently regained popularity. Many of the heirlooms were grown by only a few people, passing the seeds along to each generation or sharing with neighbors and friends.

A few examples include the ‘green grape’ cherry tomatoes, green and orange striped ‘green zebra’, yellow and red ‘marvel stripe’, large pale yellow ‘great white’, greenish red ‘cherokee’, large pinkish red ‘brandywine’, and giant red ‘mortgage lifter.’ Tomatoes also range in flavor with some as sweet as sugar to some tart with more acid and those with tropical, melon, herby and winey overtones.

I haven’t had much luck growing heirloom variety tomatoes in my garden – due to disease – so stick with the tried and true hybrid varieties – my two favorite being Early Girl and Celebrity.

Hybrids are crosses between two different tomatoes – usually one parent is a cherry tomato. These hybrids are breed to be resistant to the most common tomato disease. The letters that usually come after the name of the tomato – V, F, N & T – tell you which diseases that variety is resistant to.

Which is the Celebrity?

I have a slight preference for the Celebrity – it’s denser than the Early Girl and this year the tomatoes are a bit more flavorful. Can you tell the difference between the two?

In general, hybrids have seeds that are essentially sterile – or if they do germinate and grow into a plant, the tomatoes will not be the same as the original. Many times, the resulting tomatoes will be a cherry tomato of some sort.

Heirlooms on the other hand do have seeds true to it’s parent. So you can save seeds from heirlooms for the next season but you can’t for hybrid tomatoes.

Next year, after our garden & soil rehab and following some great tips from Love Apple Farms for growing tomatoes, I may try my luck again and plant an heirloom or two.

After you harvest your bushels of tomatoes, remember that refrigeration will rob a tomato of its flavor so its best to store in a cool place outside of the refrigerator.

It’s still early in the season so we’re enjoying the tomatoes sliced with a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and sprinkle of torn basil leaves and a pinch of salt and pepper. Or sometimes when I’m in the garden I will grab one off the vine and enjoy it right there.

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By the end of August (if not sooner) comes the question:

We hear ya.

So, every August Friday – starting tomorrow – we’ll feature a post about the wonderful zucchini. And every August Tuesday, we’ll blog about tomatoes.

Should be fun.
What are your favorite zucchini and tomato recipes?

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