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The colors and hues of heirloom tomatoes — pink, yellow, orange, green, maroon, red and gold striped, red, red with green shoulders — seem endless, and so do the variations in size and shape.
Long, dangling banana legs, bite-size green grape, ribbed and convoluted Costoluto, hefty one-pound and more mortgage lifter and orange oxheart, and every size and shape in between will soon be at farmers' markets, fruit stands and co-ops, in community-supported agriculture boxes, supermarkets, and restaurants in Yolo County and the greater Bay Area. In fact, many of them will be coming from Yolo County's own organic farmers.
Yolo County is noted for its processing tomato acreage. The 2004 Yolo County Crop Report lists processing tomatoes as the No. 1 crop by dollar value in Yolo County, with a harvested acreage of 45,129, a tonnage of 1.8 million and a value of $86.1 million. Processing tomatoes are grown conventionally and organically in Yolo County, and the county Economic Development Council has listed the tomato and organic tomato industry on its list of targeted industries to assist in development.
The heirloom tomatoes are largely grown using organi! c methods. While there are no numbers by crop under organic production methods, organic production overall in Yolo County was seventh out of the top 10 commodities in 2004, with an acreage of 4,998 and a value of $13.7 million.
We have superb conditions for growing tomatoes over a long season. This year was slow starting for tomato farmers because of the late rains, but production is in full swing, and heirloom tomatoes, with their exceptional flavors, are going to be on everyone's table, and certainly ours, well into October. It will have been worth the wait.
Heirloom tomatoes are open- pollinated varieties commercially introduced before 1940 or handed down through friends and family for at least 50 years. These old varieties were valued for their exceptional flavor, but they were relegated to backyard gardeners and seed savers when new varieties of tomatoes were developed for the fresh market.
The new varieties had uniform round shape, and since they nee! ded to be sturdy for long distance shipping, they are picked green and gassed with ethylene to run them red. Sun-ripening and flavor are not intrinsic properties of these tomatoes, yet these came to dominate the marketplace. An entire generation, maybe two, knew tomatoes only as round and red, with little juice and flavor. The yellows, pinks, whites, oranges and greens and the deep, intense flavors of the tomatoes treasured by our forefathers were forgotten.
Fortunately, groups like Seed Savers Exchange, started in 1975, collected and saved seeds of the old, heirloom varieties. Pioneer organic farmers, many of them in Yolo County's Capay Valley, acquired some of the seeds and others and began to experiment with them, seeing which ones grew best and were the most flavorful, then started selling them.
San Francisco and other Bay Area restaurants and farmers' markets were the first places consumers began to rediscover the old-fashioned flavors, brilliant colors and multiples shapes and sizes of the heirloom tomatoes. Local farmers sel! ling at the Davis Farmers' Market have long offered heirlooms to shoppers as well. Today, 20-plus years later, heirloom tomatoes are back in the mainstream.
We know we like certain tomato flavors, but what is it that we like? Some of us like a tart, high-acid taste, while others prefer mild, low-acid. Some of us look for that burst of sweetness to dominate the flavor; others seek a balance of sweet and acidic.
At Thaddeus Barsotti's suggestion (co-owner with his three brothers of Capay Organic Fruits and Vegetables), Farm Fresh to You, along with Slow Food Yolo is going to help us discover why we like what we like. Together, they are hosting a formal, guided, heirloom tomato tasting of eight to 10 varieties grown in Capay Valley. The event will be at Capay Organic .
Participants will sample each of the varieties and score them according to a protocol that involves a full sensory experience. After the tasting follows a summer dinner under the stars featuring tomatoes and goat cheeses, roasted vegetables and RoliRoti organic c hickens roasted on the company's wagon rotisserie right there at the farm. Dessert is local fruit, cookies and Peet's coffee.
Here's a chance to really to see, smell, taste and explore the world of heirloom tomatoes and expand your taste buds, as well as have a fabulous farm meal.
The event is limited to 120 people, and is expected to sell out quickly at $50 per person, $40 for Slow Food members.
Locally grown heirloom tomatoes will also be featured at the second annual Village Feast, a fund-raiser for school gardens, recycling programs and farm visits for second-graders through the Davis Farm to School Connection.
The Village Feast will be in Davis' Central Park on Saturday, Aug. 26, presented by Slow Food and many local sponsors. Heirloom tomatoes are here to enjoy for a relatively short period of time.
Look for them. Ask your favorite restaurants to feature them, cook with them at home, make salads and sandwiches with them, and when the season is truly o! ver, fry the green ones.
— Georgeanne Brennan is an award-winning cookbook author and freelance writer based in Winters and Provence, France, where she has a cooking school. Reach her at gbrennan@yolo.com. Ann M. Evans, a former mayor of Davis, is a food writer and educator based in Davis working on farm to school programs throughout California. Reach her at annmevans@aol.com. They are the co-leaders of Slow Food Yolo.
Copyright, 2006, The Davis Enterprise. All Rights Reserved.
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