BS: Tomato, heritage seed, purple etc,

Subject: BS: Tomato, heritage seed, purple etc,
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 11 May 10 - 02:15 PM

Seeds for several heritage tomatoes, including purples and dwarf Champions.
Tomato <.a>

Subject: RE: BS: Tomato, heritage seed, purple etc,
From: katlaughing
Date: 11 May 10 - 02:45 PM

That's neat they include the source info. Reminds me of a song origins thread.:-)

There are a few folks at THIS COOPERATIVE who carry heirloom seeds, but I don't see origin info, at least online. They may have them in a catalogue, I guess.

Subject: RE: BS: Tomato, heritage seed, purple etc,
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 11 May 10 - 05:54 PM

Google will provide a couple more sources but I haven't checked them for origin data.

Subject: RE: BS: Tomato, heritage seed, purple etc,
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 11 May 10 - 07:19 PM

I'd really love to see more carrots in any other colour than orange - a fairly modern genetic accident - they are sweeter, which is why the old medieval recipes for 'honeyed carrots' are revolting with orange carrots! There were white like parsnips, and other colours, yellow, red and purple. Used to be grown in eastern Countries in Europe.

The western carrot emerged in the Netherlands in the 17th century, its orange colour making it popular in those countries as an emblem of the House of Orange and the struggle for Dutch independence.

Subject: RE: BS: Tomato, heritage seed, purple etc,
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 11 May 10 - 07:22 PM

Interesting!

This year I planted a couple of heritage tomatoes I found at my local independent feed store. They're supposed to be a yellow and red striped indeterminate variety.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Tomato, heritage seed, purple etc,
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 11 May 10 - 09:01 PM

White carrot seed available from the same source that I linked for tomatoes. I have eaten purple, but not white or yellow.

Subject: RE: BS: Tomato, heritage seed, purple etc,
From: GUEST,marks(on the road)
Date: 11 May 10 - 11:27 PM

Try Brandywine if you want to try heritage tomatoes. Large, pinkish, and very tasty. Fragile though.

Subject: RE: BS: Tomato, heritage seed, purple etc,
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 12 May 10 - 07:04 AM

Sadly, when you bring any seed into Australia, Customs will try to irradiate it - one Uni researcher was not impressed when they tried to do that to his sugar beet sample seeds for his ethanol energy comparison with cane sugar project.... :-)

Subject: RE: BS: Tomato, heritage seed, purple etc,
From: Mr Red
Date: 12 May 10 - 08:23 AM

I bet if he complained too loudly they would have caned him!

Subject: RE: BS: Tomato, heritage seed, purple etc,
From: theleveller
Date: 12 May 10 - 08:48 AM

I get my tomato (and other) seeds from here

real seed company

I regularly grow Aurora and Latah with great success - even outside in cold Yorkshire - and this year am trying Urbikany which are romping away.

Subject: RE: BS: Tomato, heritage seed, purple etc,
From: SINSULL
Date: 12 May 10 - 09:20 AM

The purple tomatoes are beautiful.
Silly question: How does a tomato qualify as "Heritage"?
Mary

Subject: RE: BS: Tomato, heritage seed, purple etc,
From: Crow Sister (off with the fairies)
Date: 12 May 10 - 02:07 PM

The variety is OLD ;-)

Subject: RE: BS: Tomato, heritage seed, purple etc,
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 12 May 10 - 02:35 PM

"Old," or dropped by the major seed companies, which tend to sell the 'latest' and drop a lot of the good old stuff.

Looking for a small beet, roots sweet and good in salads. Often ate it in Arkansas when I was doing some work there.
Could be a variety of cylindra, but not one in the usual seed catalogues.
Any ideas?

Subject: RE: BS: Tomato, heritage seed, purple etc,
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 12 May 10 - 03:20 PM

On a sliding scale, I wonder where these "heritage" varieties appear in contrast to the original American tomatoes that the indigenous people of the Americas were growing?

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Tomato, heritage seed, purple etc,
From: Sorcha
Date: 12 May 10 - 03:44 PM

I think it was Gurneys, a seed company in South Dakota, US that I got a packet of mixed color carrots from. Red, white, yellow, purple and orange.

Heritage are also usually open pollinated, NOT hybrids. They are also susceptible to diseases like vertriculum in tomatoes.

There is also a group of folks in the US called Seed Savers. They keep and exchange OP seeds for the old, heritage varieties.

Subject: RE: BS: Tomato, heritage seed, purple etc,
From: MMario
Date: 12 May 10 - 03:53 PM

The smaller fruited, indeterminate varieties tend to be older.

A few of the "heirloom" tomatoe varietes are KNOWN to be quite young (several VERY young) but are open pollinated and share traites with older varieteis.

At least one of the heirlooms being sold is claimed be a selection of a tomato that grows wild in Mexico.

Determinant varietes tend to be younger (but not always) and so do the larger fruited varieties (again, not always)

Based on writings of early European explorers, the garden tomatoes of indigenes were already quite distinct from "wild" tomatoes.

Subject: RE: BS: Tomato, heritage seed, purple etc,
From: Crow Sister (off with the fairies)
Date: 12 May 10 - 03:53 PM

In the UK, I associate 'heritage' in particular to vegetables grown in Victorian kitchen gardens. the Victorians loved to travel all over the world and collect seed, they were great cataloguers of the fascinating variety of life too. Today we have the opposite tendency, to produce a lot of the same thing thus eliminating potentially valuable variety from the genetic pool - even to the extent of F1 hybrids which are STERILE and thus rtender the grower dependent on big corporations.. Grrr.

Subject: RE: BS: Tomato, heritage seed, purple etc,
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 12 May 10 - 04:11 PM

Vegetable types reflect the tastes of the times, the fact that most people in the developed countries are urban and buy from the supermarket, the need for types that ship well, are easily harvested and display well, and the disappearance of the home gardens that the 'Victorians' had.

If one is lucky enough to have space for a home garden, there are ample sources of 'heritage' or other varieties that are not carried in supermarkets. Sometimes it takes a bit of hunting about on the 'net' but they can be found- I expect to find that beet I like before too long.

Subject: RE: BS: Tomato, heritage seed, purple etc,
From: Genie
Date: 12 May 10 - 04:46 PM

Then again, I found a local grower here in Portland who sells the family's organic "heritage/heirloom" varieties of tomatoes out of the back of their truck.   (No I don't have written pedigrees, but I trust these folks.)
The thing I wanted to be sure of is that these plants, unlike much of what you buy at nurseries or (especially) the big box stores, will produce seeds that can be harvested for new plants year after year.

I bought 7 different varieties of these heirloom tomato plants plus a Sweet 100 (which I love) and a Brandywine.    If all goes well, I will have an Oxblood (deep purple-red), a Pineapple, a special Grape, and several other colors/sizes of tomatoes in my garden this year.

Subject: RE: BS: Tomato, heritage seed, purple etc,
From: open mike
Date: 12 May 10 - 06:00 PM

i always loved this name...http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mortgage_Lifter

I also like Tennessee 'Bradley' ever since hearing about it in this song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PoSewejpKkk&feature=related
Jesus and Tomatoes: Coming Soon by Kate Campbell ( this video has the best sound, if not the best video, of the available clips)

OK, WHILE I AM AT IT...HOMEGROWN TOMATOE BY GUY CLARK
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-QzLIjL1u4

and Greg Brown sings "I'm, as warm as a July tomato"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjdOB1AnCZ8 in his song Cann

Subject: RE: BS: Tomato, heritage seed, purple etc,
From: open mike
Date: 12 May 10 - 06:01 PM

canned goods...

Subject: RE: BS: Tomato, heritage seed, purple etc,
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 12 May 10 - 06:02 PM

That researcher was my ladyfriend's father .... :-)

Subject: RE: BS: Tomato, heritage seed, purple etc,
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 12 May 10 - 06:14 PM

Exotic seeds can bring competition to native species. The care taken by Australia is understandable.
Some nut brought Edelweiss from Germany and put it in the Rockies here near Calgary. Local gardeners removed it- The plant has a tendency to spread and make mats in rock gardens here and is a definite threat in the wild.
Caragana are taking space fron Saskatoons and other local shrubs along parts of the North Saskatchewan River- a terribly invasive plant.

Subject: RE: BS: Tomato, heritage seed, purple etc,
From: Genie
Date: 12 May 10 - 07:15 PM

Ah, yes, it is "Mortgage Lifter." My tag just said "Mortgage" for short.   I think the people who developed it thought it would help them pay off their mortgage, and I hope it did.

Subject: RE: BS: Tomato, heritage seed, purple etc,
From: Genie
Date: 12 May 10 - 07:18 PM

Yes, exotic seeds can sometimes turn into invasive species. But I've never heard of a tomato doing that. (More's the pity, perhaps?)

Subject: RE: BS: Tomato, heritage seed, purple etc,
From: pdq
Date: 12 May 10 - 07:36 PM

People who do not want to deal with big companies might try this place:

                                                          http://www.amishlandseeds.com/

Subject: RE: BS: Tomato, heritage seed, purple etc,
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 12 May 10 - 08:04 PM

"The care taken by Australia is understandable."

No... just stupid obsession in this case - all the correct paper work took ages in advance to set up giving permission and then they still wanted to destroy the seeds anyway... sigh....

and yet we easily import things like apples from countries with highly destructive viruses etc...