Heirloom Tomato Seeds from Tasty Tomatoes Tomato Seeds Company at Tasty Tomatoes .net! The finest quality tomato seeds for tomato lovers and tomato enthusiasts who demand only the best quality tomato seeds for their garden and kitchen.
What Is An Heirloom Tomato?
 

The question is often asked of this writer: Just what is an Heirloom Tomato and how do they differ from other tomatoes?

The answer to that question is not at all a simple, straight forward one, nor has the answer actually remained the same over the years.

Originally, the term “heirloom”, in reference to gardening, was coined during the early 1970’s to identify those vegetable and flower varieties that had originated with a particular family of people and had subsequently been passed down from one generation to the next up to modern day. Typically, these varieties were obtained a single source who had maintained them so many years. Often these varieties were completely unique and had been limited to only one or two gardens per era. This not only made these varieties very rare, but also made them very desirable by gardeners who revelled in the idea of preserving a very small part of agricultural history, and probably most importantly, in the idea of being one of only a few people with the variety.

For a few years, the above definition proved to be satisfactory, but as heirloom seeds, and in particular, heirloom tomatoes became more popular, the definition soon changed. Chances are, due primarily to the seed and plant dealers who wished to capitalize on the heirloom market, many old non-heirloom varieties of tomatoes such as Marglobe, Livingston’s New Stone, Henderson’s Ponderosa or Rutgers, suddenly became marketed as “heirlooms”. Meanwhile, as the plant collectors became more and more obsessed with heirlooms, many of these people sought out previously unknown foreign varieties and introduced them as heirlooms. As one single example, one of the best known varieties of “heirloom” tomatoes is the Black Prince Tomato. Though in the United States the variety is regarded as a “rare Russian heirloom”, in reality, the Black Prince Tomato is actually a very popular commercial variety in both Russia and the Ukraine and is of a relatively recent origin. With that in mind, it’s not technically an heirloom, but it has become a sort  of honorary one.

In more recent years, probably the most common definition of what an heirloom tomato is, is that an heirloom tomato is any tomato variety that is not a hybrid and has been in cultivation for at least fifty years.

 
 
 
Tomato Seeds by Tasty Tomatoes! Return to the Tasty Tomatoes homepage for one of the top online catalogs of heirloom tomato seeds for your vegetable garden! Heirloom Tomato Seeds by Tasty Tomatoes! Over 50 varieties of heirloom tomato seeds, including seeds for cherry tomatoes, rare black tomatoes, old fashioned red tomatoes, sweet yellow or orange tomatoes, beautifully colored striped and multi colored tomatoes, high yielding pink tomato seeds, rich tasting purple heirloom tomatoes, salad seeds, seeds for green tomatoes, ivory colored white tomatoes , giant tomatoes and much more! Buy Heirloom Tomato Seeds from Tasty Tomatoes Tomato Seeds Company by Mail Order. Everything you ever wanted to know about growing heirloom tomatoes can be found in our Tasty Tomatoes Tomato Growing Guides. Learn how to grow tomatoes from seeds. Tips on tomato growing support systems, irrigating and watering tomato plants, how to fertilize tomato plants. How to select tomato breeding stock, save tomato seeds for planting, how to grow organic tomatoes for market or for your own kitchen garden. Learn about tomato diseases, tomato viruses and pests that attack plants and much more! All About Tasty Tomatoes and Tasty Tomatoes Tomato Seeds, including details on how to order bulk tomato seeds, re-selling our heirloom tomato seeds, the retail distribution of our tomato seeds and more. Contact Tasty Tomatoes about our Tomato seeds!
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Shop online for our highly sought after black tomato seeds from Tasty Tomatoes. Black Tomatoes are a long time specialty of ours and we stock only the finest black tomato seeds for your tomato growing needs. Our black tomatoes produce good yields of stunning, tasty tomatoes that are bursting with rich, earthy tomato taste!
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Black is the new red in tomatoes and we have one of the largest selections of black tomato seeds on the planet!
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Order from our fine selection of old fashioned red tomato seeds. Our old fashioned red heirloom tomatoes will remind you of the tomatoes your grandma used to grow simply because we have went to great effort to collect, preserve and pass on to our customers, antique tomato varieties which were grown in the decades.
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A fine selection of old fashioned tomato seeds for your garden.
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Cherry Tomato Seeds. Even if you have limited space or need tomatoes for growing in containers, our Cherry Tomato seeds are the perfect choice for your tomato needs. This season we are offering an outstanding selection of cherry tomato seeds, pear tomato seeds, grape tomato seeds and plum tomato seeds that are ideal for growing in containers.
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No matter what your garden situation may be, you can still grow these little bundles of tomato taste! 
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Browse through our excellent selection of orange tomato seeds to bring a ray of sunshine to your tomato patch! Not only are our orange heirloom tomatoes beautiful, but they are higher in Vitamin C and other nutrients than most other tomatoes. With their extrordinarily sweet tomatoey taste, they are sure to be a winner in your garden this year!
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Bursting with Vitamin C, our orange tomato seeds produce hearty yields of gorgeous tomatoes!
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Shop online for our popular yellow heirloom tomato seeds that give high yields of super sweet, golden tomatoes! The sugar content of yellow tomatoes is so high that they fall into the category of being low acid tomatoes!
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Our yellow tomato seeds deliver loads of super sweet, golden fruits!
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Plant a rainbow in your tomato patch this year by planting our striped and multi-colored heirloom tomato seeds. These tomatoes come in a wide range of sizes and colors and are sure to be a hit with even the most difficult to please tomato gardener or chef!
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As tasty as they are beautiful, our striped tomato seeds can bring a rainbow of colors to your garden!
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With their lovely pastel colors, hearty yield and sweet taste, our pink heirloom tomato seeds have been making fans of tomato enthusiasts throughout the world. This year besides our oldest stand-bys like the Caspian Pink Tomatoes from Russia, the Pink Brandywine Tomato and our much revered Light Pink Oxheart Tomato Seeds and our strain of HUGE Giant Belgian Tomatoes, we have also introduced many new varieties of pink heirloom tomatoes for your tomato patch this year!
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Our pink tomatoes are some of our sweetest and most dependable producers!
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With their brilliant colors and shiny irredescence, our Purple Heirloom Tomatoes are sure to be the hit of your garden this year. This year we are offering varieties like Purple Ukranian Tomatoes, Purple Calabash Tomatoes, Cherokee Purple Tomato seeds and much more.
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A gorgeous selection of beautiful purple tomatoes bursting with rich earthy flavors!
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The finest selection of white heirloom tomato seeds that give high yields of rich, creamy tasting ivory white colored tomatoes that will please even the most hard to please palate. Great White Beefsteak Tomatoes, Cream Sausage Tomatoes, White Wonder Tomato Seeds, White Beauty Tomatoes, White Queen Tomato seeds, Snow White Cherry Tomato seeds and others.
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With their stunning ivory colored tomatoes, our white tomato seeds are among our most popular!
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Grow your own fried green tomatoes with our rare green tomato seeds. Unlike their un-ripe counterparts, our heirloom green tomatoes possess a rich, citrus-like sweet taste with a juicy tomatoey flesh. This year we are pleased to offer Green Zebra Tomatoes, rare Moldovian Green Tomato seeds, Aunt Ruby's German Cherry Tomatoes and more as part of our excellent selection of green tomato seeds!
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Green tomatoes aren't just for frying! We have a fine selection of these delicious emerald beauties.
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Have you ever wanted to grow a world record giant tomato in your tomato patch? We can help with our selection of our largest tomato seeds. Grow your own Huge Giant Tomatoes with our giant heirloom tomato seeds, including varieties like Jerry's German Giant Tomato, Giant Belgian Tomatoes, Omar's Lebanese Tomatoes, Sunset's Red Horizon Tomatoes, Rostova Tomatoes and others. How big of a tomato can YOU grow?!
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Our largest tomatoes, with giants weighing up to four pounds each! How big can you grow them?
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Grow your own healthy salads year round with our fine selection of salad seeds, including heirloom cucumber seeds, heirloom lettuce seeds, lamb's lettuce seeds, radish seeds, roquette seeds, cress seeds, mustard seeds and more!
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What tomato garden would be complete without a fine selection of lettuce, radishes and cucumbers?
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