MIQUELON LAKE, Alta. — A good tomato is like a good wine.
A bite into a ripe tomato can release a mild sensation or a zing at the back of the tongue as it rolls around the mouth.
Ester Walker, who runs Glen View Greenhouse and Organic Farm, wanted her customers to taste the subtle differences found among the 83 varieties of tomato.
Earlier this year Walker held a tomato-tasting event at her greenhouse. However, her customers couldn’t reach a consensus on which variety was best.
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“There was no hands-up winner,” she said.
“Tomatoes have different functions. Some are good for salads, some for sandwiches or canning. I don’t know anyone who grows just one tomato.… You can love the big tomato flavour or the low acid of others.”
Walker grows tomatoes in her greenhouse until November.
“I like the big tomato taste with the bite back here,” said Walker, pointing to the back of her mouth.
At first bite, the Tumbling Tom Red sent a burst of flavour in Kathi Nagy’s mouth, who declared it her favourite.
Next was the Tumbling Tom Yellow, with a softer, more mild flavour.
“Who would have thought there were so many different tomatoes,” said Nagy, a self-confessed tomato lover whose grandmother used to serve tomatoes sprinkled with sugar as dessert.
Yellow, orange, red and purple tomatoes grew in Walker’s greenhouse. There were tomatoes with thick skins and new varieties with thin skins. There were colourful varieties with little flavour that are designed to look good in salads. There were varieties only for canning. There were varieties designed to produce fruit early in Canada’s cold climate.
After tasting more than a dozen tomatoes, Nagy returned to the Tumbling Tom Red to see if it was still love at first bite or if the other tomatoes had nudged it out of first place.
A second taste left her unsure. It’s taste seemed mild and with no bite after the zing of the Vilna and Cobra.
Walker said tomatoes are a versatile plant. New varieties are designed for increasingly popular backyard greenhouses while others are designed for patio pots.
“The cost of seed is not prohibitive.”
It’s important to Walker to keep those unique flavours and tomatoes. While not a purist, most of her tomatoes are considered heritage varieties. They are tomatoes that have a historical interest, are open pollinated, can be regrown from their own seed and are at least 50 years old.
“I like the idea I can save the diversity,” she said.
This year’s discovery of late blight in Alberta makes it even more important to protect the genetic diversity of tomatoes, she added.
Late blight is a deadly disease of potatoes and tomatoes.
Walker has found several seed houses since starting her greenhouse more than 10 years ago that sell heritage tomato seeds and other heritage vegetables.
“There are lots of cool things that are heirlooms, not just tomatoes,” she said.
She grows dozens of shapes, colours and sizes of peppers in her greenhouse, and does so until the heat is turned off in November.
“I just love gardening. I like to know where my food comes from.”
