US: Consumer trends offer future to historic tomatoes
True, tomatoes that ripen on the vine all at same time are appealing as they make harvesting simple - particularity mechanised harvesting, but they do make for a very short harvest period.
Likewise those that last long in storage have an obvious appeal for commercial growers, but they are not recognised for their flavour quality.
And those that are all of a very uniform shape and size are ideal for packaging, but they don't offer a lot of diversity.
Inside everyone of these modern tomatoes, just a selection of which are described above, there lurks the genetics of the ancestor tomatoes - the heirloom varieties.
The development of these tomatoes harks back to the dawn of agriculture. Farmers would select the most robust, healthy tomatoes of their annual crop to provide the seed for the next generation. In this fashion they would develop varieties of plant that were perfectly adapted to their specific environment.
If these tomatoes are not used they will be lost. Quite simply the seed does not keep in storage and it is necessary to grow it to maintain supply.
This has implications for modern production too. There are varieties out there that suit all kinds of different climates and geographies, but so often people use catch all varieties. Maybe now is a good time to reconsider and offer the consumer the localism and heritage they are looking for.
Source: www.kirksvilledailyexpress.com
