100 Heirloom Tomatoes for the American Garden by Carolyn J. Male

100 Heirloom Tomatoes for the American Garden by Carolyn J. Male
Editorial Reviews

Tomatoes have always been far and away the most popular plant in the vegetable garden, and today the class act among tomatoes is the heirloom varieties--those vegetables with a past that go back generations, their seeds preserved and passed down among families, friends, and dedicated farmers. And no one knows heirloom tomatoes like Carolyn Male, a biologist who's grown more than a thousand varieties in the last 14 years. Following the lush and practical format of 100 English Roses for the American Garden (with 57,000 copies in print), 100 Heirloom Tomatoes is a thorough how-to and a stunningly photographed field guide. It covers every facet of growing heirlooms, from selecting the right varieties for your zone and type of garden to timing and planting of seeds, transplanting, hardening off, staking vs. caging, fertilizing, and more. There's a section on how to become a seed saver and even how to do crosses that will lead to creating your own heirlooms. Then comes the tasty part: Aunt Ginny's Purple and Amish Paste, Redfield Beauty, Green Zebra, Georgia Streak and the Santa Clara Canner. Fluted, scalloped, flattened, or lobed--white, pink, red, orange, gold, or chocolate brown--sweet to tart, mild to strong, perfumed and fruity to dark and smoky--now these are tomatoes with real character.

Product Details

Paperback: 246 pages
Publisher: Workman Publishing Company (July 1, 1999)
Language: English
ISBN: 0761114009
Product Dimensions: 10.2 x 7.0 x 0.7 inches

Price: $12.21
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Spotlight Reviews from Amazon.com

23 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

Big juicy information book for tomato lovers, August 27, 2002
Reviewer: Joanna Daneman (Middletown, DE USA)

I confess to a passionate love of growing tomatoes that goes back to childhood. And I have an equal love for the taste of those sun-warm, acid-sweet juicy fruits that make summer taste like summer. This year, finally moving to a tomato-friendly climate for the first time in two decades, I rushed to plant an heirloom tomato even in a container, before I could cultivate a true garden.
Heirloom tomatoes come from seeds saved by tomato enthusiasts who have done us all the huge favor of preserving varieties of tomatoes that taste great, look interesting (all kinds of colors) and far better than the F1 hybrid boring red globes palmed off by the average seed company. While F1 hybrid tomatoes are easy and reliable and very disease-resistant, they often lack that huge tomato taste we all remember from childhood. (These hybrid tomatoes do have their place, however. Some of the modern hybrids will mature in a very short time, thus are the only tomatoes you can grow in hostile climates like Germany and New England.)

This book has all the information I need for next year's adventure in tomato culture. It lists 100 heirloom varieties, gives their strengths (resistance to common tomato ailments, pleasing taste, form) and their weaknesses as well. In addition, Dr. Male provides the history of the variety, which is interesting reading. The pictures by photographer Frank Iannotti are not only mouthwateringly lovely, but they accurately show a typical batch of tomatoes from a given cultivar--not all the fruits are perfect, some have typical defects such as stitching, weird shapes and other oddities. This gives you an accurate idea of what to expect. I compared Dr. Male's description of Yellow Brandywine to my experience this year. Right on every point, and her explanation of "Blossom End Rot" (an ailment that produces soft black disgusting spots at the blossom end of the fruit) was excellent. I found out my tomatoes were stressed by our constant brisk winds here in Delaware, not a deficiency of calcium in the soil or water. I know now I must plant a variety that is not prone to this defect, because it is often breezy here.

The front section of the book is devoted to tomato culture, and is very complete, showing staking and trellises, saving seeds, transplanting starter plants, and more.

I rate this a big green THUMBS UP and will be salivating all winter as I plan my next tomato garden for 2003.

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

Thank you Dr. Male for 3 years of fantastic tomatoes!, April 7, 2003
Reviewer: A. Ryan "Merribelle" (Westminster, CA USA)

This is the book for anybody who has ever bitten into a store-bought tomato and wondered whatever happened to rich, juicy flavor. Three years ago I was asking myself that same question when I stumbled across Dr. Carolyn Male's 100 HEIRLOOM TOMATOES FOR THE AMERICAN GARDEN.
Written by an avid Seed Savers' Exchange member after she had grown more than 1,000 heirloom varieties of tomato, this book is an introduction to open-pollinated (as opposed to the unjustly popular hybridized) tomatoes for home gardeners. Dr. Male manages to discuss the historical and present significance of cultivating these heirlooms in a rational voice while yet relaying her passion for the flavorful heritage they represent to her. The field guide has full-page photographs of each kind with notes on their colorful origins, flavor types and everything else you could want to know about these personal treasures. Soon you will find yourself caught up in the mania to seek out the assortment of seeds that will yield tomatoes with character, lore and unbeatable taste.

Although it has a truncated field guide format and flexible cover, 100 HEIRLOOM TOMATOES also serves as an excellent primer for general tomato culture. In the first 42 pates you will learn about selecting the right heirloom for your purposes, germinating and transplanting, common diseases and conditions, saving your own seeds, etc. Dr. Male looks at various standard schools of thought thoughout this section while presenting good arguments for her own practices.

I found this book to be one of the more honest examinations of tomato varieties, from Dr. Male's frank mention of both pros and cons down to the photos, which displayed typical physiological flaws alongside more perfect examples of the fruit and foliage. After growing and sampling for myself several of the tomatoes recommended here, I can testify that the descriptions are spot-on while leaving some room for differing climatic and cultural conditions. Dr. Male's degree in microbiology and her regular gardening magazine article contributions further reinforce her as a noted authority in this field. This is a guide that the home gardener can have confidence in.

Recommended for any home vegetable gardener and not a few specialty market gardeners besides.
-Andrea, aka Merribelle.

Customer Reviews

100 is not enough!, September 12, 2005
Reviewer: R. N. (NJ)
This is a great book. I especially love the pictures with cross-sections of each tomato so you can see the meatiness before you buy. I also appriciate that the taste of each one is described in detail. My only complaint is that a lot of great tomatoes are missing from this book. I hope the next volume has about 500 varieties to truley reflect the unique color, taste and shape variations in heirloom tomatoes.

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0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

Great Book, July 26, 2005
Reviewer: Kim M. Hebert

Very Colorful & Helps You Pick The Type Of Seeds To Purchase By Giving You Good Details About Them

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

GREAT REFERENCE WITH REALISTIC PICTURES! , July 14, 2005
Reviewer: G. Morrison (Tucson, AZ United States)

While I was impressed with the exhaustive (yet lively) information
provided by Dr. Carolyn Male, perhaps MOST IMPORTANT to tomato
growers are the realistic pictures. Instead of 100 photos of
"perfect tomatoes" - you see the imperfections associated with
each variety: i.e. if the tomato is prone to cracking, green
shoulders, or catfacing... she tells you this AND provides
pictures! Two years ago, I was kicking myself for producing oddly
shaped and sometimes ugly heirloom tomatoes. Sure wish I had this
book back then.

If YOU plan to grow heirloom tomatoes... BUY THIS BOOK!!!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

Excellent heirloom bestiary!, July 3, 2005
Reviewer: Neil F. Sambol (Roswell, GA USA)

The good:

- Excellent, yet brief, overview of heirloom tomatoes, where they come from and how to grow them.

- Wonderful descriptions of 100 heirloom tomatoes with pictures of foliage, ripe and unripe fruit and a fruit sliced in half so you can see the seed / solid / juice ratio. These pictures are particularly useful because they show the tomato as you would see it in your garden, blemishes and all. This book is not a marketing compaign but a reality check.

- Helpful comparisons between similar tomatoes such as "produces well for a heart-shaped variety." These descriptions may help the gardener choose between two or more similar varieties.

Recommendations for improvement for any future edition:

- Include more than 100 varieties (or follow up with a volume 2). This book is wonderful and I have read it from cover to cover several times but it leaves me wanting more.

- About 20% of the varieties are not available commercially. Initially, I wondered why the author would include these varieties if a grower cannot get the seeds. I believe that one can get the seeds from the "Seed Savers Exchange" which the author refers to frequently in the book, but it would be easier if the author provided a little more information about where to get the seeds. It's somewhat disappointing to read about a tomato and get all excited and then see that it is not available commerically.

- A significant plus would be for the author to provide a chart of the 100 listed varieties to help the grower compare similar tomatoes:

Perhaps organized by type (heart-shaped, round, cherry, multi-colored, etc) this list could have columns indicating when the tomatoes ripen, flavor characteristics, productivity, disease resistance, etc. I find myself reading through pages of text over and over again when I should really be looking at one or two pages.

Overall, my thanks to the author, editor and photographer for producing an excellent book.

Price: $12.21
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