Description

An heirloom tomato (also called heritage tomato in the UK) is an open-pollinated, non-hybrid heirloom cultivar of tomato. They are classified as family heirlooms, commercial heirlooms, mystery heirlooms, or created heirlooms. They usually have a shorter shelf life and are less disease resistant than hybrids. They are grown for various reasons: for food, historical interest, access to wider varieties, and by people who wish to save seeds from year to year, as well as for their taste.

Many heirloom tomatoes are sweeter and lack a genetic mutation that gives tomatoes a uniform red colour at the cost of the fruit’s taste. Varieties bearing that mutation which have been favored by industry since the 1940s – that is, tomatoes which are not heirlooms – feature fruits with lower levels of carotenoids and a decreased ability to make sugar within the fruit.