I grew up in a home where Beefsteak tomatoes were considered the only palatable tomato. What made it worse was that they were supermarket tomatoes, hard, flavourless things that could last for several months in the fridge. We kids called them baseballs, and for good reason.

Photograph of heirloom tomato varieties, Black Russian, Brandywine, Green Grape and Sub Artic Plenty courtesy of Thompson & Morgan

As my taste, and seed allowance, grew over the years with my own family, I began trying any new offerings in the seed catalogues, which were usually quite disappointing. That is, until I came across some heirloom seed catalogues.

Favourite Heirloom Varieties

Today, my favourite heirloom seed catalogue lists 8 pages of tomato seeds alone and in array of colours: red, white, black, pink, yellow, green, bicolour and other colours. The colour selection alone is impressive, but to have all of them available in cherry, paste and main crop makes me giddy with choice.

When I wrote this year’s order, I chose 15 varieties. That was ridiculous since we’re only 3 in my family, so I narrowed it down - to 8. Still too many but I just had to try them.

Heirloom Tomato Varieties - Which Seeds to Buy?

The pink Mortgage Lifter, with its fascinating history, is a huge plant yielding 1-2 pound (500g-1K) fruits. Then there’s the Paul Robeson, originally from Russia, black with it’s distinctive sweet and smokey flavour. Yummm, I can taste it already.

Jaune Flamme from France, a prolific cherry type with bright orange skin and red interior. Then there’s Green Zebra, yellow to yellowish-green striped fruit with sweet, zingy flavour which will contrast nicely with almost black Brandywine and it’s thin-skinned, non-acid fruit.

Can't forget German Gold, yellow with red 1 pound fruit and it’s opposite, Yellow Pear cherry tomatoes. And Principe Borghese, ideal for sun-drying. Can you imagine all these sliced and arranged on a platter? I think I’ll be holding a tomato tasting party.

Other Heirloom Vegetables

A few other heirloom vegetables caught my attention and order: Chiogga Beets with their pink and white circular interior and mild flavour. I’m not a great beet lover so I passed on Bull’s Blood, a dark, hearty flavoured beet for true beet lovers. Lemon Cucumbers are small, round, lemon coloured fruit that were hard to resist. Same with Forellenschluss (‘speckled like a trout’s back’) romaine lettuce.

Which Heirloom Seeds for Next Year?

Now the hard part begins: which tomatoes to choose for next year. Pineapple with tropical fruity-sweet flavours is #1, followed closely by Persimmon’s very sweet flavour and few seeds. Orange Strawberry sounds interesting as does Lillian’s Yellow. And so do ten others.