Smith & Hawken: 100 Heirloom Tomatoes for the American Garden (Paperback)

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

This is a book for the true tomato snob who is not content with the ordinary red beefsteak weighing heavily on the vine at the end of summer. Yellow, pink, green, and orange tomatoes are all part of this guide to heirloom varieties, many of which are only available through catalogs or through an organization called the Seed Savers Exchange.

Author Carolyn Male favors heirlooms that have been passed down through families, not commercially created hybrids. She does not hesitate to be critical, calling some varieties mealy or bland, while others send her into epiphanies. Although she makes gestures toward guiding the novice, this is a book for either food fanatics or experts who move in the subculture of truly obsessed gardeners catering to gourmet cooks and specialty markets. Throughout the book, enticing photographs of freshly picked heirlooms remind the reader that grocery store tomatoes aren't really tomatoes at all, sitting sadly under fluorescent lights, losing their flavor and color. If only they had been born in a tomato snob's garden; then they would have been treated like royalty. -–Emily White

Product Description

This thorough how-to and stunningly photographed field guide covers every facet of growing heirlooms, from selecting the right varieties for a particular zone and type of garden to timing and planting seeds. Full-color photos.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 246 pages
• Publisher: Workman Publishing Company (July 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0761114009
• ISBN-13: 978-0761114000
• Product Dimensions: 10 x 5.4 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (33 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #135,286 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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  #5 in	Books > Home & Garden > Gardening & Horticulture > By Plant > Tomatoes
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  #58 in	Books > Home & Garden > Gardening & Horticulture > Vegetables

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

41 of 42 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Thank you Dr. Male for 3 years of fantastic tomatoes!, April 7, 2003

By	A. Ryan "Merribelle" (Westminster, CA USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

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.

39 of 40 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Big juicy information book for tomato lovers, August 27, 2002

By	Joanna Daneman (Middletown, DE USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 10 REVIEWER)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)

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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.

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic book on a fascinating subject, August 15, 1999

By A Customer

Dr. Male has written a beautiful and extremely helpful guide to wonderful heirloom tomatoes. I like to try different tomato varieties every year, and this book will be my guide to what to grow next year. I must add that I am mystified by the comments of Ms Emily White, who accuses growers of heirloom tomatoes of being snobs and fanatics. We just like good tomatoes. Heirlooms were handed down through the generations by family farmers, not snobs. I know quite a few people who grow heirloom vegetables, and they grow them for the taste, not some elitist attitude or for specialty markets. All my heirloom tomatoes end up on my surburban dinner table. I seriously question whether Ms White has ever grown anything. If she does grow tomatoes, I suggest that she try some heirloom varieties before criticizing those who grow them. If you love garden fresh tomatoes, buy this book!