Heirloom tomatoes pack decades of flavor

FAIRFIELD — Tomatoes come in all different shapes and sizes, but Experienced gardener and owner of Wild Spirits plant nursery Tiffany April Raines plans to bring a standout variety of tomatoes to the Fairfield Farmers market this year: Heirlooms.

“Most grocery stores don't carry [Heirlooms] because they're sensitive to being shipped long distances, whereas the hybrid varieties have been grown and ordered to be shipped long distances,” Raines said.

“But the heirlooms, they're the originals,” Raines said.

For Raines, growing these unique variety of tomatoes, “can be an art form in terms of the fruit that they bear … But in order to be classified as an heirloom, it needs to be, in several generations, true to form.”

“I think that's an important part of stewardship as a gardener is preserving the heritage of these types of tomatoes,” she said.

The technical requirements to classify a tomato as an Heirloom necessitate, they come from at least 50 years of consistent production of a parent plant.

“They're the same exact type of tomato that … your grandparents were growing and enjoying. So, it's that preservation of characteristics that qualifies a tomato,” Raines said.

Producers of the typical grocery store variety tomatoes generally grow them with heartiness. They value characteristics that help tomatoes withstand disease, various growing environments, and shipping above everything, including flavor.

Cultivating Heirlooms, however, commonly revolves around producing a flavor-packed fruit.

“If you ever eat a grocery store hybrid tomato and then you take a bite of an heirloom tomato straight from the garden, the difference is night and day,” Raines said. “It's a completely different culinary experience.”

According to Raines, purple varieties “have a very rich, deep, almost smoky, complex flavor … and yellow tomatoes are considered low acid, meaning that they're a little bit sweeter and richer and less tart than some of the red tomatoes.”

“Then your beef steak tomatoes and your brandy wine tomatoes, those also have a very, very rich kind of meaty flavor to them,” Raines shared.

Which ones are Raines favorite? Black cherry tomatoes.

She says these bite-size, deep purple tomatoes make an excellent snack and offer an unparalleled depth and complexity of flavor.

“They really don't compare at all in terms of flavor to what's in the grocery store,” Raines said. “It's light years above in terms of flavor, quality, and nutrition.”

Thanks to her greenhouses, Raines will likely produce these flavorful tomatoes well into December.

“That’s the benefit of a greenhouse with season extension,” she said. “So because it's going to be warmer in there in May and warmer in there in October, I can get about two more months of production out of my greenhouse than I can with my tomatoes that are outside in the garden.”

Currently, Raines’ greenhouse contains approximately 250 tomato plants which she plans to grow to production for the purpose of adding them to her farmers market offers.

“That will probably yield … I don't even know what that's going to yield,” Raines said. “A lot of tomatoes. It's going to be a lot of tomatoes.”

As she grows such a large quantity of tomatoes, Raines knows a thing or two about the extra care and attention that goes into the process.

“One of the downsides to growing heirloom tomatoes is that frequently they do not have those disease resistant characteristics that the new hybrids have,” she said.

This becomes a concern because the plants are more sensitive to humid, high moisture summers like those in Iowa and these conditions make them more susceptible to fungal diseases.

“It's very important if you are growing heirloom varieties to do a little bit of research about the care they require,” Raines said.

To avoid this issue, Raines advises gardeners not to water the whole plant.

“Water the base of the plant,” she said. “Keep the leaves as dry as possible and don’t let the leaves touch the ground.”

Additionally, Heirloom tomato growers should prune their plants from the bottom up to maximize airflow.

When planting, sowers should place seeds two and half to three feet apart and vertically train plants as they grow.

“So, keeping your plants vertically trained and well pruned is kind of the main rule of thumb to keeping them healthy. So it's not really too much of a science,” Raines said. “It's just being mindful, really, of airflow. The more airflow and oxygen the plant gets and the less moisture on the leaves, the less problems you will have with disease.”

Raines also states that companion planting benefits the growth of Heirloom tomatoes.

“For example, tomatoes and basil go incredibly well together,” she said. “When you plant basil next to tomatoes, it seems to improve the vigor of both plants and also the flavor of both plants. And gloriously. When you eat tomato with basil, like in a caprese dish, they go flawlessly together.”

“So if you want to experience the flavors of heirloom tomatoes without having to grow them yourself, I highly recommend going to the farmers market starting in maybe June and July,” Raines said. “That's when the first heirloom tomatoes will be available this summer.”

Kalen McCain contributed to this article.

Comments: AnnaMarie.Ward@southeastiowaunion.com, Kalen.McCain@southeastiowaunion.com