What 'vintage' is to cars and 'antique' is to furniture, 'heirloom' is to vegetables and 'love apples' or tomatoes seem to enjoy quite a history! Heirloom vegetables are those that are pollinated naturally and grown from seeds. Further, if the variety can be dated back and traced to a region some fifty years or so ago, then this makes it truly heirloom. Stronger hybrid varieties for commercial purposes or ornamental kinds that adorn have their own value but for true, organic taste, this type beats them all.

Like all things that are not artificially fortified, this strain of tomatoes is more prone to disease. Husk tomatoes or tomatilloes are gourmet favorites while the Nebraska Wedding is meaty with a taste that is both sweet and sour. The Pineapple variety is so called for it is tropical in essence and flavor, and grows large, weighing sometimes 2 to 2 ½ pounds per fruit.

An 18th century type called Brandywine tops for taste and this variety has an Amish ancestry while the region around the Caspian Sea offers us a strain called Caspian Pink. The flesh of this tomato is pinkish in color and has a warm, salty flavor.

If you like Growing Vegetables....These pages might also interest you:

Good Looking Vegetable Gardens, Growing Garlic, History of the Tomato, How to Grow a Great Pepper, When are Vegetables Ripe?, Growing Oversized Vegetables, Growing Peas in the Garden, Growing Tomatoes, Tips for Growing Potatoes