What are Heirloom tomatoes?

Heirloom tomatoes are varieties that have been passed down through multiple family generations because of their popular characteristics such as shape, color or flavor, and are usually called a heirloom. The term “heirloom,” in Dutch “heirloom,” has been much misused for commercial gain in recent years as heirloom species have grown in popularity. Many companies also call non-heirloom tomatoes therefore heirloom.

At The Grow Supplier, we chose to adopt the definition used by tomato experts, who divided heirlooms into four categories:

Commercial heirlooms: Open-pollinated varieties introduced before 1940, or tomato varieties that have been in circulation for more than 50 years.
Family heirlooms: Seeds that have been passed down through a family for several generations.
Created heirlooms: cross two known parents (either two heirlooms or a heirloom and a hybrid) and dehybridize the resulting seeds for however many years/generations it takes to eliminate the undesirable traits and stabilize the desirable traits. This may take as long as 8 or more years.
Mysterious Heirlooms: Varieties that are a product of natural cross-pollination from other heirloom species.

Where did the term Heirloom tomato come from?

It seems that Kent Whealy of Seed Savers Exchange was the first to use the term “heirloom” in reference to plants. He did so in a speech he gave in Tucson in 1981. John Withee, whose bean catalog cover had the word “heirloom,” had given him permission to use the phrase. The term “heirloom” was first used, according to John, to describe some beans that friends had given him in the 1940s, and who claimed to have borrowed it again from Prof. John. William Hepler of the University of New Hampshire.

Heirloom tomatoes and their importance

Many types of heirlooms and the numerous smaller family farms that supported heirlooms have disappeared over the past 40 years. Hybrid tomatoes bred for their commercially desirable characteristics replaced the many heirlooms that had evolved to survive for hundreds of years.
In the process, we have also ceded control of a significant portion of the food produced by small farms and family gardens, and are losing genetic variety at an alarmingly rapid rate.

Each heirloom species has a special genetic makeup that includes a developed resistance to pests and diseases, as well as an adaptation to certain growing environments and climatic conditions. Due to plant epidemics and insect pests, food production is seriously threatened by the loss of genetic variety. Think of it as genetic degradation.

“These resources stand between us and catastrophic famine on a scale we cannot imagine. In a very real sense, the future of the human race depends on these materials. The line between abundance and disaster is getting thinner and thinner, and the public is unaware and unconcerned. Should we wait for disaster?” wrote the late Jack Harlan, a renowned plant collector who also taught plant genetics at the University of Illinois at Urbana and wrote several books on the relationship between humans and diversity.

It is our responsibility as gardeners and growers to ensure that we preserve the diversity of heirloom varieties given to us by Mother Nature.

Buy Heirloom tomato seeds from The Grow Supplier

At The Grow Supplier, we also think diversity is important. Not only with tomatoes, but with all plant species.

For this reason, in our seed market we have mostly very old and incredibly delicious heirloom varieties such as Kellogg’s Breakfast, Black Truffle, Manitoba and Cherokee Purple.

Or rare varieties such as Dark Galaxy, Florentine Beauty, Costoluto Fiorentino and Golden Tiger.

Check out our tomato seeds and start growing these delicious tomatoes yourself!