Heirloom tomatoes attract growers with variety, taste

They don't look like the standard store-bought variety, but fans say once you try heirloom tomatoes, nothing else will do.

Grown in various shapes and shades of yellow, deep purple, reds and even green stripes, their popularity is booming.

“Absolutely,” says Shirley Vermace, education and events coordinator for Seed Savers Exchange in Decorah. “They are increasing in popularity because they taste so much better than what you can find in a supermarket.”

Seed Savers, the largest non-governmental seed bank in the country, defines an heirloom as any garden plant with a history of being passed down within a family, just like heirloom jewelry.

The exchange maintains more than 25,000 endangered vegetable varieties, most brought to North America by members' ancestors who immigrated from Europe, the Middle East, Asia and other parts of the world.

Their names, and the stories behind each plant, are part of the attraction.

For example, Cherokee Purple is believed to have been grown by Cherokee Indians in Tennessee in the nineteenth century.

Black Krim, a tomato that turns almost black with enough sun, is named for the Black Sea's Crimean Peninsula.

Then there's Wapsipinicon Peach, number 1058 in the Seed Savers catalog, and winner of Seed Savers' 2006 Heirloom Tomato Tasting event.

Dennis Schlicht of Center Point is credited with finding this peach-shaped fuzzy yellow tomato.

Schlicht, 61, a teacher at Washington High School in Cedar Rapids, can be counted among the most enthusiastic proponents of heirloom tomatoes in Eastern Iowa.

His garden bursts with colors of 40 kinds of the heirlooms, interspersed with flowers and other vegetables.

Schlicht, who saves thousands of seeds in carefully marked bags, pulls out a knife to let visitors sample ripened varieties.

“It's not a typical year,” he says of the season so far, which has been cooler and wetter than normal. “Tomatoes need the heat and they set better when it's a bit dry.”

Still, samples are juicy and sweeter than anything found in stores.

Schlicht teams with other heirloom growers to hold tasting events, including one set for next month in his garden.

Bob King, another Center Point resident and retired school superintendent, joins with Schlicht for some of the events.

King, 63, notes that each tomato has a different use including salsa, tomato paste or eating plain.

Tasting events are one way to sample a variety.

Up to 700 people attend the annual event at Seed Savers in Decorah.

Schlicht said a tomato from Wal-Mart was included in an event at Wickiup Hill Outdoor Learning Center near Toddville and everyone who sampled it was able to identify it as a “Wal-Mart tomato.”

Jenny Corbett, a Wickiup naturalist who has organized past tasting events, says the site won't have one this year because she moved and didn't grow as many tomatoes.

Corbett, who has grown heirlooms for 10 years, says she has seen the vegetables dubbed “ugly tomatoes” for sale at farmers markets.

“It's sad that they have to call them that,” she says, noting that some people aren't willing to try a tomato “unless it's nice and round and red.”

Schlicht was drawn into growing heirlooms after an older Center Point resident gave him some “Bohemian lettuce.” After she died, he realized he hadn't saved any of the lettuce seeds. Neither had the woman's son.

“I had it in my hands and let it slip,” he says. “If people don't do this of their own volition, it's gone. That's why it's important to keep these things going.”