Heirloom tomatoes saved for history but a boon for marketers
Heirloom tomatoes saved for history but a boon for marketers
The tomato category has exploded over the past decade with no item having a better story to tell than the so-called heirloom tomato.
Though its name conjures up the past, one would have been hard-pressed to even find an SKU for the item at the turn of this century. It has only been in the past few years that the heirloom tomato has become a big seller, and it still is much more popular in upscale, specialty or natural food markets than in conventional supermarkets.
But the heirloom tomato has devotees across the country who are more than willing to pay a retail price of $5 per pound or more to add a taste from the past to their dining room table.
"Today I ship heirloom tomatoes all over the country, but that has only happened in the last five or six years," Greg Beccio, owner of Happy Boy Farms in Santa Cruz, CA, told The Produce News.
Happy Boy Farms specializes in organic heirloom tomatoes, and Mr. Beccio farms about 225 acres of the crop in a number of different locations in and around neighboring Gilroy, CA. He planted his first heirloom tomato variety about 20 years ago when he started his operation, but for the first 10-15 years, the retail outlet for the crop was local farmers' markets.
Like many other trends, Mr. Beccio said that the specialty tomato started to catch on in the San Francisco Bay area and other West Coast locations, and then leaped across the country to New York and Boston about five years ago. "Then it spread to the middle of the country, and now I get orders from all over," he said.
Mr. Beccio credited Greenleaf, a well known San Francisco produce market wholesaler that caters to foodservice, for popularizing the heirloom tomato in the Bay area.
Happy Boy Farms remains mostly a local supplier, with the vast majority of its production sold within a couple of hundred miles of its farms. "My emphasis is predominantly local," said Mr. Beccio. "My preference is to fill the local demand, but during the peak of the season, we do ship as many as 500-800 crates [daily] out of state."
While there are some relatively large grower-shippers producing, selling and shipping heirloom tomatoes on a limited basis, it is primarily a local deal because of the limitations of the varieties themselves. These are open- pollinated seed varieties that were not bred for a long shelf life and can hardly handle a cross-country trip by truck. "Anything east of the Rockies, I ship by air," Mr. Beccio said. "These varieties have a very limited shelf life -- usually only about five days."
While the supply side is exploding with many small farmers getting involved, Mr. Beccio said that it is a difficult product to grow, and many farmers don't realize that. "It's much different than a regular tomato. The key [to maximizing the shelf life] is to precool them to 55 degrees immediately [after harvest], or you are going to get no shelf life at all."
Filling the supply void across the country are hundreds, if not thousands, of small farmers, who often get their seeds from Gary Ibsen, co-owner of the "TomatoFest Farm" brand of heirloom tomato seeds. He and his wife, co- owner Dagma Lacey, grow more than 600 varieties of certified-organic heirloom tomatoes. Each year, they hand harvest and hand pick the seeds from those varieties. Mr. Ibsen said that the seeds are scraped out of the tomatoes by hand "on our kitchen table."
For Mr. Ibsen and Ms. Lacey, it is a labor of love that has seen this business grow from their passion. A hobbyist grower for the past 30 years, Mr. Ibsen began growing heirloom tomatoes and saving the seeds in the late 1980s. His passion grew into organizing the Carmel TomatoFest in 1992 to celebrate the heirloom tomato. For 17 years, he has organized the event, which is held in Carmel, CA, and has drawn attention to the heirloom tomato, and by association, attention to Mr. Ibsen and his packets of heirloom tomato seeds.
His 600 tomato varieties produce thousands upon thousands of seeds, only 3 percent of which he sells. Most of the rest are given away as charitable donations to community and urban garden projects, school gardens and organizations that promote education and sustainable living through organic gardening.
"The 3 percent is what we need to run this organization," he said.
Mr. Ibsen also keeps a well-cataloged bank of seeds so that he can preserve these varieties for generations to come. It was the preservation of these old varieties that caused him to begin the farming operation in the first place. Mr. Ibsen noted that in the 1980s, breeders were producing new varieties designed to have many attributes without concern for taste. Hence, he began collecting older varieties. "People are always sending me old varieties from all over the world. I'll try them for a couple of seasons and if I like what I get, I add them to my list."
A farmer today can actually buy newly developed "heirloom" tomato varieties from the established large-scale commercial seed producers, but that seed does not qualify for classification as an heirloom tomato, according to Mr. Ibsen. He acknowledged that the definition is not written in stone and that the phrase "heirloom tomato" may mean different things to different people. For example, to many consumers, an heirloom tomato is a multi-colored, misshapen tomato, but to Mr. Ibsen those are characteristics of many of the varieties but not the definition in any sense.
In the first place, an heirloom tomato must be an open-pollinated variety. And he said that it must have been commercially developed and available before the 1950s, or it must have been handed down from generation to generation.
"What we are looking for is that it has a track record, that it was developed before the gas-green varieties started to dominate," he said.
Commercial seed companies can develop hybrid tomato varieties that produce non-uniform, multi-colored tomatoes, but that does not make it an heirloom, according to Mr. Ibsen. Conversely, he said that there are many perfectly round red varieties handed down from the 1920s, '30s or '40s that do qualify for heirloom status.
At the end of the day, Mr. Ibsen said that what separates an heirloom from a modern variety is taste. While he said that seed companies have gotten better at producing some new hybrid tomato varieties that taste good, that is not the main characteristic that is driving the development. Modern commercial varieties have to produce well, do it uniformly and have extra shelf life, he said. In a word, they are "market-driven."
"Heirloom tomatoes were all taste driven. It was the merits of the flavor" that made them popular, he said.
Though its name conjures up the past, one would have been hard-pressed to even find an SKU for the item at the turn of this century. It has only been in the past few years that the heirloom tomato has become a big seller, and it still is much more popular in upscale, specialty or natural food markets than in conventional supermarkets.
But the heirloom tomato has devotees across the country who are more than willing to pay a retail price of $5 per pound or more to add a taste from the past to their dining room table.
"Today I ship heirloom tomatoes all over the country, but that has only happened in the last five or six years," Greg Beccio, owner of Happy Boy Farms in Santa Cruz, CA, told The Produce News.
Happy Boy Farms specializes in organic heirloom tomatoes, and Mr. Beccio farms about 225 acres of the crop in a number of different locations in and around neighboring Gilroy, CA. He planted his first heirloom tomato variety about 20 years ago when he started his operation, but for the first 10-15 years, the retail outlet for the crop was local farmers' markets.
Like many other trends, Mr. Beccio said that the specialty tomato started to catch on in the San Francisco Bay area and other West Coast locations, and then leaped across the country to New York and Boston about five years ago. "Then it spread to the middle of the country, and now I get orders from all over," he said.
Mr. Beccio credited Greenleaf, a well known San Francisco produce market wholesaler that caters to foodservice, for popularizing the heirloom tomato in the Bay area.
Happy Boy Farms remains mostly a local supplier, with the vast majority of its production sold within a couple of hundred miles of its farms. "My emphasis is predominantly local," said Mr. Beccio. "My preference is to fill the local demand, but during the peak of the season, we do ship as many as 500-800 crates [daily] out of state."
While there are some relatively large grower-shippers producing, selling and shipping heirloom tomatoes on a limited basis, it is primarily a local deal because of the limitations of the varieties themselves. These are open- pollinated seed varieties that were not bred for a long shelf life and can hardly handle a cross-country trip by truck. "Anything east of the Rockies, I ship by air," Mr. Beccio said. "These varieties have a very limited shelf life -- usually only about five days."
While the supply side is exploding with many small farmers getting involved, Mr. Beccio said that it is a difficult product to grow, and many farmers don't realize that. "It's much different than a regular tomato. The key [to maximizing the shelf life] is to precool them to 55 degrees immediately [after harvest], or you are going to get no shelf life at all."
Filling the supply void across the country are hundreds, if not thousands, of small farmers, who often get their seeds from Gary Ibsen, co-owner of the "TomatoFest Farm" brand of heirloom tomato seeds. He and his wife, co- owner Dagma Lacey, grow more than 600 varieties of certified-organic heirloom tomatoes. Each year, they hand harvest and hand pick the seeds from those varieties. Mr. Ibsen said that the seeds are scraped out of the tomatoes by hand "on our kitchen table."
For Mr. Ibsen and Ms. Lacey, it is a labor of love that has seen this business grow from their passion. A hobbyist grower for the past 30 years, Mr. Ibsen began growing heirloom tomatoes and saving the seeds in the late 1980s. His passion grew into organizing the Carmel TomatoFest in 1992 to celebrate the heirloom tomato. For 17 years, he has organized the event, which is held in Carmel, CA, and has drawn attention to the heirloom tomato, and by association, attention to Mr. Ibsen and his packets of heirloom tomato seeds.
His 600 tomato varieties produce thousands upon thousands of seeds, only 3 percent of which he sells. Most of the rest are given away as charitable donations to community and urban garden projects, school gardens and organizations that promote education and sustainable living through organic gardening.
"The 3 percent is what we need to run this organization," he said.
Mr. Ibsen also keeps a well-cataloged bank of seeds so that he can preserve these varieties for generations to come. It was the preservation of these old varieties that caused him to begin the farming operation in the first place. Mr. Ibsen noted that in the 1980s, breeders were producing new varieties designed to have many attributes without concern for taste. Hence, he began collecting older varieties. "People are always sending me old varieties from all over the world. I'll try them for a couple of seasons and if I like what I get, I add them to my list."
A farmer today can actually buy newly developed "heirloom" tomato varieties from the established large-scale commercial seed producers, but that seed does not qualify for classification as an heirloom tomato, according to Mr. Ibsen. He acknowledged that the definition is not written in stone and that the phrase "heirloom tomato" may mean different things to different people. For example, to many consumers, an heirloom tomato is a multi-colored, misshapen tomato, but to Mr. Ibsen those are characteristics of many of the varieties but not the definition in any sense.
In the first place, an heirloom tomato must be an open-pollinated variety. And he said that it must have been commercially developed and available before the 1950s, or it must have been handed down from generation to generation.
"What we are looking for is that it has a track record, that it was developed before the gas-green varieties started to dominate," he said.
Commercial seed companies can develop hybrid tomato varieties that produce non-uniform, multi-colored tomatoes, but that does not make it an heirloom, according to Mr. Ibsen. Conversely, he said that there are many perfectly round red varieties handed down from the 1920s, '30s or '40s that do qualify for heirloom status.
At the end of the day, Mr. Ibsen said that what separates an heirloom from a modern variety is taste. While he said that seed companies have gotten better at producing some new hybrid tomato varieties that taste good, that is not the main characteristic that is driving the development. Modern commercial varieties have to produce well, do it uniformly and have extra shelf life, he said. In a word, they are "market-driven."
"Heirloom tomatoes were all taste driven. It was the merits of the flavor" that made them popular, he said.
