What is an Heirloom Tomato?
Tomato Health Benefits
What are the differences between store bought tomatoes and Elser's Country Farm tomatoes?
Are tomatoes fruits or vegetables?
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What is an Heirloom Tomato?
They are the varieties that have been passed down through the generations from hundreds of farmers and gardeners around the world. Unlike commercially marketed tomatoes, heirloom tomatoes come in all kinds of shapes, sizes, colors, and tastes. Since 'heirloom' varieties have become popular in the past few years there have been liberties taken with the use of this term for commercial purposes. Heirloom tomato experts, Craig LeHoullier and Carolyn Male, Ph.D. have classified down heirlooms into four categories:
- Commercial Heirlooms: Open-pollinated varieties introduced before 1940.
- Family Heirlooms: Seeds that have been passed down for several generations through a family.
- Created Heirlooms: Crossing two known parents (either two heirlooms or an heirloom and a hybrid) and dehybridizing the resulting seeds for how ever many years/generations it takes to eliminate the undesirable characteristics and stabilize the desired characteristics, perhaps as many as 8 years or more.
- Mystery Heirlooms: Varieties that are a product of natural cross-pollination of other heirloom varieties.
All heirloom varieties are open-pollinated but not all open-pollinated varieties are heirloom varieties.
Tomato Health Benefits
In addition to its fresh taste, a single tomato gives you 2 grams of fiber, 23 milligrams of vitamin C, 431 milligrams of potassium, and 4,683 micrograms of the antioxidant lycopene - all nutrients that protect you against heart disease and cancer - for just 33 calories. (Shape magazine, September 2007)
Nutritionists have always known tomatoes were good for you, now there is research-based information as to why. Tomatoes are packed with vitamin C, potassium, fiber and vitamin A in the form of health promoting beta-carotene, which the body converts to vitamin A.
Tomatoes are also a source of lycopene, which is the subject of current promising research on the role of plant chemicals that promote health. Research suggests that lycopene may play a role in the fight against cancer, especially prostate cancer. Like beta-carotene, lycopene is a carotenoid, responsible for the bright red color of the tomato, watermelon, and grapefruit. Although lycopene is available in all ripe tomatoes, a greater supply is more useful to the body in cooked tomatoes.
What are the differences between store bought tomatoes and Elser's Country Farm tomatoes?
There is an incredible amount of difference between store bought tomatoes and Elser's Country Farm tomatoes. The most important is that store bought tomatoes are picked green and are gassed with the fruits own natural ripening hormone called ethylene to promote consistent, faster ripening. Elser's Country Farm tomatoes are picked the day of or before a market to ensure you have the freshest, tasting tomato. All our vegetables are grown organically.
Are tomatoes fruits or vegetables?
The answer to this question is an interesting bit of tomato trivia. Technically a tomato is a fruit, since it is the ripened ovary of a plant. But in 1893 the supreme court ruled in the case of "NIX v. HEDDEN" tomatoes are to be considered vegetables.
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The tomato is the world's most popular fruit. More than 60 million tons of tomatoes are produced per year, 16 million tons more than the second most popular fruit, the banana.
Tomato products are beneficial in aggressive cancers that have also spread to other parts of the body.
Eating tomatoes, ketchup, tomato sauce and tomato paste-topped pizza more than two times a week can reduce the risk of prostate cancer by 21 to 43 percent according to Dr. Edward Giovannucci of the Harvard University School of Public Health.
Tomatoes are high in Vitamin A, Vitamin C, Calcium and Potassium
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