Italian Heirloom Tomato

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If I could only have one tomato, Italian Heirloom would be it. First, it tastes wonderful fresh--great balance of sweet and tart, with full, complex flavor. Then, it's early, and bears heavily til frost, so you get a lot of tomatoes from each plant. It's the first big heirloom tomato to ripen for me. Fruits average 12 oz and some are over a lb. Third, it is the most resistant to sun scald of any tomato I've grown. Forth, it's a great sauce tomato. They melt into a creamy sauce with minimal cooking--and the flavor is terrific. Finally, it is incredibly easy to peel. The skins come off so easily that you can often peel them without even blanching. I dislike tomato skins, and when I use these raw, I can peel them in my hand as I slice them.

An exception to the rule that multi-purpose varieties are usually mediocre--Italian Heirloom is excellent on all counts. Handles my hot summers, but I also hear raves about how well it does in cool cloudy climates. Why doesn't everybody carry this tomato???? 70 days from transplant. Indeterminate. 20 seeds

Our varieties are chosen for flavor. In addition, each has its own special talent or trait that you may want--disease resistance, ripening time, heat resistance, cold resistance, low-light tolerance, etc.  They are listed in order of ripening--within their category. (All slicers, early to late, then all  cherries, early to late, then paste.)  I recommend growing an early, a main crop, and a late tomato to have a dependable supply all summer.  I have noted which tomatoes do well in especially cool or hot climates. Most of our varieties are indeterminate, meaning that they make a vine that needs support, but continues to bear until frost kills it. So-called bush, or determinate, types bear a more concentrated crop for canning or freezing. Most are commercial varieties that ship well but lack flavor.

Two tips to maximize flavor and minimize cracking: In areas where nights are cold, pick in the afternoon for best flavor. (Cold temps make tomatoes sour and tasteless, which is why we don't put them in the fridge.) Pick ripe and near-ripe fruit before you water, to avoid cracking and watery flavor. Fruit that has colored, but needs a couple of days for full ripeness will ripen with full flavor indoors. (This is nothing like the way agri-biz tomatoes are picked totally green and artificially ripened.)