Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, March 11, 1994 TAG: 9403140060
SECTION: LAWN & GARDEN PAGE: 19 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JAMES E. WALTERS ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Unfortunately, most people under the age of 50 won't understand why. They've only eaten the bland offerings found in supermarket produce departments. Now Brandywines and other heirloom types are making a comeback.
Seeds always have been available from specialty firms like Tomato Growers Supply Co. Heirloom-preservation groups, such as Seed Savers Exchange, also had them.
But the inherent problem of Brandywine and similar heirloom types - they just can't be transported any distance - kept them out of the main stream.
Contrast that to this report on Brandywine from the 1994 catalog of Johnny's Seeds, a major distributor: "Is this Amish heirloom the best tasting tomato? We have not tasted better."
Rob Johnson Jr., chairman of Johnny's, says Brandywine is one of seven heirlooms being carried for the first time in 1994.
"I realized that all of us working on tomato development at Johnny's had been too rigid and conventional in our standards - that the ideal tomato was firm, globe-shaped, red and grew on a compact plant. Look at all we had been missing!"
Johnson says he became convinced that consumers were being shortchanged "because the need of produce handlers for durability tends to contradict good taste features."
Stokes Seeds, another major supplier, was even firmer: "Taste has still been completely forgotten by most plant breeders in the 1990s . . . During the 1930s all tomatoes tasted great because most tomatoes were picked field ripe and not shipped a long distance to market."
Stokes' offerings include heirloom-type Vendor tomatoes.
Both Johnny's and Stokes offer free catalogs.
by CNB