edible gardening: FROM SEED TO SAUCE
Heirlooms, not your salad bar tomatoes
Nothing says summer quite like a perfectly ripe tomato fresh off the vine. Bright, juicy and acidic, this messenger of long days and humid nights needs no decoration— perhaps just a quick dash of salt and a grind of pepper, a drizzle of olive oil and a basil leaf if you’re feeling fancy.
Take a drooling, fleshy bite out of a conventional fruit. Now try it again with an heirloom variety. Taste the difference? Heirloom plants (open-pollinated cultivars not used in modern large-scale agriculture) have been nurtured and handed down from farmer to farmer with legacies that enrich each slice with the richest possible flavor.
But you probably know that. In fact, chances are that if you’re reading this publication, you are already buying heirloom tomatoes over conventional when given the choice. You know that a tried-and-true, crater-laced Brandywine will dole out more … Read the rest