By Michelle Fabio

In Santorini, Greece, among the volcanic ash and dramatic white villages overlooking the deep blue Aegean Sea, you will also find one of the most revered tomatoes on the planet—the Santorini cherry tomato.

Aside from tasting wonderful, these tomatoes have been found to have more Vitamin C than an average tomato and more lycopene than any fruit or vegetable.

Rather appropriately, this tiny tasty tomato Read the rest of this entry »

By Michael Nolan

The beauty of heirloom tomatoes reaches far beyond the dinner table and into history itself.

They are a breath of fresh air in today’s world of genetically mutated plants that foster family and friendship.

Heirloom seeds are truly by the people, for the people. They are not mass manufactured and sold in every store, instead being handed down by generations of real people who value taste and purity over appearance.

In the early 1940s, a man without any formal education who went by the name of “Radiator Charlie” decided that he wanted to create a better tomato. Read the rest of this entry »

By Michelle Fabio

Maybe you would love to grow tomatoes but don’t have access to a plot of land that would be suitable. Well so long as you have room for a container and a sunny spot on your porch or balcony, you can have a fabulous container garden.

We recently talked about getting started in container gardening, but below you’ll find some more tomato varieties that would prosper in such an environment, as recommended by NJ.com.

For small varieties to be grown in 3- to 5-gallon pots: Read the rest of this entry »

By Michelle Fabio

If you were interested in tomatoes back in the mid-1990s, you probably heard of the Flavr Savr, the genetically-engineered (GE) tomato from the Californian company Calgene.

Now that GE tomatoes are back in the news for possibly fighting birth defects and anemia, you might be wondering—what ever happened to that Flavr Savr?

First, for those who haven’t heard of this history-making tomato, the Flavr Savr was the first genetically engineered food given the stamp of approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for human consumption; the FDA even found that no special labeling was necessary on the GE tomatoes because there was no evidence of health risks and nutritional content was the same as naturally-produced tomatoes.

The Flavr Savr was designed to be able to be left longer Read the rest of this entry »

By Michelle Fabio

Perhaps you love nothing more than a big red (or pink or orange or yellow) tomato, but you just might want to make room for another color on the shelf—black.

According to Gary Ibsen of TomatoFest Garden Seeds, one of the Internet’s largest organic heirloom tomato seed sellers, “black” tomatoes are becoming increasingly popular in produce markets and with both chefs and home gardeners.

Indeed, the Paul Robeson “black” heirloom tomato has won “Best Tasting Tomato” for several years at the NatureSweet Carmel TomatoFest in California, which you’ve read about here at Tomato Casual as well.

Other popular black tomatoes include Black Krim, Black Cherry, Black From Tula, Japanese Black Trifele, Read the rest of this entry »

By Michelle Fabio

Being the avid tomato gardener you are, you probably know exactly which tomatoes will be sprouting up in your garden this year.

But in case you’re still undecided, Mother Earth News has compiled a list of “America’s Favorite Tomatoes” based on the opinions of Seed Savers Exchange members as well as other tomato experts around the country.

The results of the survey talk about the differences between hybrid and open-pollinated varieties and group favorite tomatoes into categories for early growth, tomatoes for making sauce and paste and sandwiches, and for varieties called “great green and zebras” and “oranges, strawberries, and lemons.”

Go to Read the rest of this entry »