The Most Popular Heirlooms, SSE Style

For Seed Saver Exchange members, the highlight of the year is probably receiving the annual Yearbook each January or February. That is when they find out if any new, interesting heirloom vegetables become available for ordering and growing the following summer. It is also the time that we find out how many of the seeds that we sent out the previous year are being reoffered by other members. By reading the descriptions, we can tell if other gardeners feel the same way about a variety that we do. It is also a good way to get a handle on what is popular in the heirloom hit parade.

I thought that it would be interesting to the OTV readers to give a list of the most popular varieties of heirloom tomatoes. By popular, the statistic that I used is the number of SSE members that are reoffering the seed. Though the SSE Yearbook lists literally thousands of varieties of tomatoes, many, if not most, are being offered by only one person. For some reason, more heirloom tomatoes have not yet caught on with other gardeners. Sometimes the description that the grower gives does not do the variety justice, but usually, it is because there is just not much to get excited about. At the other end of the spectrum lie those varieties that have truly reached legendary status with seed savers. Again, there are a variety of reasons for this, such as historical significance, inherent quality, or curiosity value.

For this article, I used 16 as the cut off number for number of seed savers offering a variety. Among the red tomatoes, Amish Paste takes top prize with 39 gardeners offering seed for it. This is followed by the various strains of Abraham Lincoln (25), Red Brandywine (25), Reisentraube (24), Stupice (19), Silvery Fir Tree (18), Druzba (16), and Old Brooks (16). The pink tomatoes hold the SSE champion, Brandywine (50 offering seed savers), followed by Eva Purple Ball (23) and Prudens Purple (16). The yellow and orange tomatoes are led by Yellow Pear (26), Yellow Brandywine (20), Persimmon (18), and Golden Queen (17). Finally, the odd and unusual tomatoes are represented by Green Zebra (30), Cherokee Purple (27), Black Krim (24), Pineapple (24), Green Grape (22), Black Prince (19), Purple Calabash (16), Banana Legs (16), and Evergreen (16). It is both humbling and exciting to see that Carolyn or I are the ones who brought several of the above to the attention of seed savers. In this category are Reisentraube, Druzba, Eva Purple Ball, Yellow Brandywine, and Cherokee Purple. One reason may be that we managed to get these varieties into one or several commercial seed catalogs. Another is that we tend to write very detailed descriptions in the SSE yearbook, which may tempt more people to sample the variety for themselves. It is also important to note that all of the varieties listed above are now available to gardeners through one or more commercial seed sources. This is a tremendous change that is fairly recent. Even as recently as 5 years ago, this statement would not be true at all.

What an interesting collection of tomatoes! With respect to flavor, it is clear why Amish Paste, Red Brandywine, Reisentraube, Druzba, Brandywine, Eva Purple Ball, Prudens Purple, Yellow Brandywine, Persimmon, Cherokee Purple, Pineapple, Green Grape, and Evergreen make the list. All are wonderful tomatoes, and several are very productive and well adapted to many growing areas. Curiosity is the prime motivator for growing Silvery Fir Tree (which, frankly, is much more valuable for its foliage than its fruit), Green Zebra, Cherokee Purple, Black Krim, Green Grape, Black Prince, Banana Legs (which has its supporters, but I find to be tough skinned and relatively bland), Evergreen, and, especially, Purple Calabash. I have never grown the last mentioned tomato, but most describe it as a tomato of poor or at least highly unusual and strong flavor. After seeing it growing at the Monticello gardens, it is certainly an interesting specimen, however, with its dusky pink-purple coloration and its creases and folds. Unfulfilled promise is represented by Abraham Lincoln, which appears to be much less than the tomato it used to be when released by Buckbee in 1923. Once described as bronze foliaged and weighing over one pound each, most if not all of the Abraham Lincoln being offered produce medium round fruit on semi determinate green foliaged plants. Clearly, some crossing has led to the demise of the variety as originally developed. The strain that was obtained by Carolyn and me from the USDA has large fruit, but not the bronze foliage. Finally, it is certainly strange to me why Old Brooks, Yellow Pear or Golden Queen are so popular. Speaking of confusion, we have written previously about the troubles of Golden Queen. One of the original Livingston developments from the late 1800’s, it was originally described as a medium to large bright yellow tomato with a pink blush on the bottom. The strain we received from the USDA lives up to this description. Unfortunately, most if not all of the Golden Queen listed in seed catalogs is probably a selection from Jubilee, which is a medium sized orange tomato that was bred by Burpee and released in the 1940’s. So far, neither Carolyn nor I have had any luck getting a seed company to sell the real thing. In future articles, Carolyn and I will each be writing on varieties that we feel are overrated, as well as some that clearly need to be grown and enjoyed by more tomato enthusiasts.