Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com:
This is a book for the true tomato snob who is not content with the ordinary red beefsteak weighing heavily on the vine at the end of summer. Yellow, pink, green, and orange tomatoes are all part of this guide to heirloom varieties, many of which are only available through catalogs or through an organization called the Seed Savers Exchange.

Author Carolyn Male favors heirlooms that have been passed down through families, not commercially created hybrids. She does not hesitate to be critical, calling some varieties mealy or bland, while others send her into epiphanies. Although she makes gestures toward guiding the novice, this is a book for either food fanatics or experts who move in the subculture of truly obsessed gardeners catering to gourmet cooks and specialty markets. Throughout the book, enticing photographs of freshly picked heirlooms remind the reader that grocery store tomatoes aren’t really tomatoes at all, sitting sadly under fluorescent lights, losing their flavor and color. If only they had been born in a tomato snob’s garden; then they would have been treated like royalty. –Emily White

Book Description:
Preserved by families, collected by seed savers, passed around among farmers, heirloom tomatoes are now being sought out by more and more home gardeners as an alternative to the bland sameness of commercial hybrids. And happily, these growers are discovering that heirlooms are not only vastly more flavorful, but are just as hardy and easy to cultivate as the hybrids.

Dr. Carolyn J. Male, who has raised more than a thousand heirloom tomatoes, here presents 100 consistently top-performing varieties for North American gardeners. There are red tomatoes, yellow tomatoes, green, orange, purple, and even black tomatoes–like Black from Tula, with green shoulders and a dusky rose-black coloring. There are cherry tomatoes, too–try Martino’s Roma, a paste with spectacular yield and built-in tolerance of blossom end rot. For every gardener, no matter how experienced, here’s everything you need to know to grow and harvest tomatoes with real taste.

Customer Reviews

I carry this book with me! by Susan Siemers
I have a small greenhouse and sell organic heirloom tomato plants. This book is my tomato bible! I am growing many of the plants she lists. Some I already knew about, some will be new this year, based on the information in this book. In addition, this book contains the simplest and clearest instructions I have found for saving seeds.

Her pictures - well, they are REAL! What a concept! Instead of pictures of these pristine tomatoes that were probably airbrushed, the pictures of her cherry tomatoes show a little crack here and there, and she unabashedly shows scarring and other blemishes. She shows top views, bottom views, and each picture shows a cut tomato so one can see the flesh. For a tomato grower like me, this is great information.

Her descriptions are frank, and since I was already growing some of these tomatoes myself, I know they are honest. You ever notice how the descriptions of the tomatoes in the catalogs imply that EVERY tomato is the BEST tomato? Dr. Male tells it like it is! In fact, she describes some of them having some faults, but has listed them for other reasons. (We agree - Amish Paste? Ho-hum. But historically significant and in spite of its faults, a very popular tomato.)

If you are a tomato aficionado, then you must add this book to your library! I will have a copy at my booth at the farmers market - and I bet it will be dog-eared by the end of the tomato season! I may have to buy another!

Inspiring. by D. Sarason
I love thumbing through this book. I buy most of my seeds from Seed Savers Exchange so it is especially fun because several of the varieties I was already growing, are featured in this book. Plus I have been inspired to try a few more. Well laid out. Beautiful book.

Will inspire you to grow tomatoes by Brian A. Schar
I received this book as a gift, after my small 4-plant tomato plot fared disastrously last summer. 1 of the 4 plants produced decent tomatoes, while the rest died unceremoniously. This year, following the recommendations in this book, my 4 plants are all doing great, and I already have little tomatoes-to-be on 3 of the 4. For that reason alone I would recommend this book. I wish some of the planting and tending suggestions were a little clearer; you have to piece some of them together for yourself. Nevertheless, just two of the express recommendations on their own have made a world of difference for me.

The photographs and descriptions of the different heirloom varieties are fantastic, and will inspire you to pick out some different and unusual tomatoes for your garden. You don’t have to be a tomato fanatic to enjoy and learn from this book.

100 Heirloom Tomatoes by Jaime C. Lent
Wonderful book written by Dr Carolyn Male. If you don’t own or have not read this book, then you really are found lacking in life!

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