What are Heirloom Tomatoes?

Series Summary

Gardeners and farmers have cultivated heirloom tomatoes for their excellent taste and color. Heirloom tomatoes are purported to be tastier than hybrid tomatoes and can be easily reproduced true to type. That is to say that if you save the seeds of an heirloom tomato and plant them, they will (contrary to hybrid tomatoes) produce the same tomato plant and consequently the same tomatoes. Year by year you can grow your own tomatoes without having to buy a new plant when the old dies. If you would like to learn more about heirloom tomatoes, how they taste, and how to cultivate them, you can learn from one of our experts - free and online.

In this free video series, learn how about heirloom tomatoes from farmer and heirloom tomato expert Tom Ashley. Tom will teach you all about heirloom tomatoes, how they taste, and what type of food goes best with each type of heirloom tomato. Learn about heirloom tomatoes such as black (purple) tomatoes, yellow tomatoes, rip green tomatoes, bicolor tomatoes, orange tomatoes, red heirloom tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, and sport tomatoes. In this free heirloom tomato video series learn how to cultivate heirloom tomato seeds.

Video Transcript

"So what is an heirloom or heritage or antique tomato sometimes they are referred to. They date back to a time before hybridization in the early 50's to a time when people saved seeds from year to year from one crop to grow their crop the next year. As you can see, heirloom tomatoes come in all different sizes, shapes and colors. One commonality is their great taste. These are selected by farmers and gardeners over the years because they grew well, they produced a reliable crop each year and they tasted great. There are some disadvantages of the heirloom. They get some misshape in fruit. This commercial industry really doesn't like things like that but with a sharp knife, you can certainly get a lot of tomato out of that. Most of the disadvantages are purely for commercial uses. In the garden, your disadvantages disappear and you've got beautiful wonderful tasting tomatoes. "