By Robin Sweetser

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Imagine––a plant that was once thought to be poisonous is now the most popular vegetable grown in home gardens. Just one bite of a vine-ripened, home-grown tomato will have you convinced that nothing could be more delicious, especially if that fruit is an heirloom variety.

To be considered an heirloom, a tomato should have been passed down in one family for three generations and be open-pollinated. Many are hundreds of years old. Most have been passed down from generation to generation because they taste so good. They come in a rainbow of colors––purple, green, white, pink, yellow, orange, and black––and a wide range of sizes as well, from tiny ‘Yellow Pear’ to huge ‘Crimson Cushion.’ Their unique shapes may not be perfect, but their sumptuous flavors are flawless.

Master Gardener Tom Kamberis of Hillsborough, N.H., sells organically grown flower and vegetable plants, but his specialty is heirloom tomatoes. This year he raised three dozen different heirloom  varieties. According to Kamberis, “You just can’t beat them for flavor. If you are going to grow tomatoes, you should at least grow something that is going to taste good. We sell tomatoes at the Farmers’ Market in the summer and the heirlooms win any taste test. Some of our favorites are ‘Omar’s Lebanese,’ ‘Rose,’ ‘Soldacki,’ and ‘Black Krim.’ We eat ‘Yellow Pear’ off the vine like candy.”


Many heirloom tomatoes have interesting names, and behind those names lie fascinating stories. Some are named for people, such as ‘Box Car Willie’ or ‘Cosmonaut Volkov.’ Others are named for their place of origin, such as ‘Thessaloniki’ or ‘Giant Belgium.’ Some are named for their color, such as ‘Goldie’ or ‘Bloody Butcher,’ while others are combinations of these, such as ‘Caspian Pink’ or ‘Aunt Ruby’s German Green.’

A mix of heirloom tomatoes in a salad or sliced on a plate add colorful interest to a summer meal.	‘Mr. Stripey’ is a large, low-acid tomato.	‘Yellow Brandywine’ has an incredibly rich flavor.	‘Old German’ is a bi-colored heirloom originally grown by the Mennonites in Virginia.
‘Green Zebra’ will have yellow streaks when fully ripe.	‘Mortgage Lifter’ is a large, meaty tomato with few seeds.	‘Black Krim’ is best picked while the shoulders are still slightly green.	‘Cherokee Purple’ has thin skin, soft flesh, and a smoky, sweet flavor.

‘Radiator Charlie’s Mortgage Lifter’ tomato has the best story of all. During the Depression, Marshall Byles (aka Radiator Charlie) of Logan, West Virginia, wanted to grow the biggest and best-tasting tomato. He planted four varieties that bore especially large, flavorful fruit, and experimented with cross pollinating them. After six years, he finally ended up with a disease-resistant, heavy-bearing plant that produced delicious tomatoes weighing up to four pounds each. Word spread about these extraordinary plants and they became known as ‘Radiator Charlie’s Tomatoes.’ He sold his plants for one dollar each, a whopping amount at that time, but gardeners came from as far as 200 miles away to buy them. Selling 1,000 plants a year for six years, he was able to pay off the six-thousand dollar mortgage on his house. After that the plant’s name changed to “Radiator Charlie's Mortgage Lifter.”

“We grow these every year as much for the story as for the excellent tomatoes,” notes Kamberis.

To pick up some of these tasty heirloom varieties, head to your local Farmers’ Market or contact your local garden center. For a complete listing of 2007 Farmers’ Markets, log on to agriculture.nh.gov and click on the publication page. To locate one near you in N.H., visit the N.H. Farmers’ Market Association at nhfma.org.