Here’s a prime example of why heirloom varieties are not commercially marketed.
They simply don’t travel well. But they sure do smell and taste fantastic, much better than the increasingly opaque and uniform tomatoes I see at the grocery.
Even the hothouse, vine-ripened varieties don’t come close to these heirlooms.
So I have no problem getting one or two beaten up tomatoes in my CSA box every other week.
What I do worry about is the spread of blight, which is threatening organic farmers across the country. If you don’t know what blight is or how serious a threat, think Irish potato famine. (See Washington Post from last week.)
The ordeal has me rethinking the need for hybrids, you know the kind you see in the supermarket that are resistant to blight.
But for me to go back to a commercial hybrid, food scientists will have to start selecting for taste and not just size and travel compatibility.
Editor’s note: no tomatoes were wasted in the writing of this piece. This mutilated heirloom was pulverized and mixed into a tasty organic salsa.
Virtual Farmgirl 