Carmel, California
January 24, 2008
TomatoFest® Garden Seeds
today announced that "black" tomatoes rank high in the "Top 10"
list of favorite heirloom tomatoes going into 2008.
The "Top 10" favorite heirloom tomatoes are: Paul Robeson
(purple/black), Cherokee Purple (purple/black), Brandywine
(pink), Amana Orange (orange), Marvel Stripe (red/yellow
striped), Julia Child (pink), Black Zebra (green/purple
striped), Black Cherry (purple/black), Kellogg's Breakfast
(orange), and Aussie (red).
"It's not just not red and pink tomatoes that steal the show on
the "Top 10" list anymore," said Gary Ibsen, grower of 600
varieties of certified organic, heirloom tomatoes in California,
and owner of TomatoFest® Garden Seeds, one of the largest
internet retailers of organic heirloom tomato seeds.
"The purple/black colored heirloom tomatoes continue to rise in
popularity at produce markets, with restaurant chefs, and with
home gardeners for 5th year in a row," says Ibsen. "Black"
tomatoes are fast becoming the new "red" tomato. They're the
'Cinderellas' of the produce markets."
"A survey of our tomato seed sales to home gardeners and
commercial tomato farmers, along with a review of our sales of
fresh heirloom tomatoes to retailers and restaurants,
demonstrate soundly that consumers have discovered the superior
and complex flavors of the "black" heirloom tomatoes, and are
selecting these bold colors with their mix of favorite red,
pink, orange and bi-colored tomatoes."
Ibsen adds, "I've also seen a jump in demand for the "black"
tomatoes in China, Spain, Japan and the UK. And it's not just my
own experience that supports this growing trend toward the
"blacks" and other-colored heirloom tomatoes; other tomato
farmers are showing similar results." During recent years,
California-based Happy Boy Farms, one of the largest
grower/shippers of heirloom tomatoes in the nation, also found a
huge increase in the demand for black tomatoes among produce
retailers as well as restaurant accounts.
"This is exciting news," Ibsen continues, "because it shows that
consumers are being more adventurous in selecting the dark
colored varieties of heirloom tomatoes that only a few years ago
were next to impossible to find in the marketplace."
"Black" tomatoes are not really black, remarked Ibsen. "They
cover a range of dark colors, including deep purple, dusky deep
brown, smoky mahogany with dark green shoulders, and
bluish-brown. The depth of colors seems to be encouraged by a
higher acid and mineral content in the soil."
"Black" tomatoes are native to Southern Ukraine during the early
19th century. They originally existed in only a small region of
the Crimean Peninsula. Soon they were showing up as new
varieties in many shapes and sizes and began to appear
throughout the territories of the former Soviet Union. Then they
began turning up in the former Yugoslavia, Germany and the
United States.
The Paul Robeson "black" heirloom tomato, ranking high on the
"Top 10" list, won "Best Tasting Tomato" for several years at
the Carmel TomatoFest® in California. Its deep, rich colors
stand it apart from other traditional tomatoes, boasting a
dusky, dark-red skin with dark-green shoulders and red flesh in
its center. This beefsteak tomato is filled with luscious,
earthy, exotic flavors, and has a good acid-to-sweet balance.
TomatoFest Garden Seeds has found a consumer and retailer
preference with other "black" tomato favorites, such as:
Cherokee Purple, Black Crimson, the pear-shaped Japanese Black
Trifele, Black from Tula, Black Plum and Cherokee Chocolate. The
Black Cherry tomato has also been on a meteoric rise in
popularity due to its jewel-like appearance and pronounced
sweet, complex flavors |
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