Over the past twenty years, commercial growers have produced tomato varieties that valued shelf-life and unblemished prettiness over taste--and the result has been an almost tasteless tomato at your local supermarket (the baskets might taste as good). Put taste back on top with heirloom varieties such as Cherokee Purple, Brandywine, Yellow Brandywine, Sugar Lump, and Zebra Stripe--some can even flourish on your patio in a 7-gallon-sized container!

Heirlooms vary in their production time, so you can sequence your varieties over the summer. A vine-ripened tomato salad can be yours for the picking! These tomatoes may not look as pretty as the ones in the local supermarket—but the taste more than makes up for it.

Planting and growing directions:

The one disadvantage to heirloom varieties is that they tend to be less disease-resistant than the hybrids. Choose the healthiest plants you can find, buy a few extras in case, and especially keep any cigarettes far away (if you smoke yourself, don't even think about tending them with a cigarette in your mouth—that's asking for mosaic virus, even with a resistant hybrid). If you've grown a few extra, and they all stay healthy, your non-gardening neighbors will probably be happy to take some of your great-tasting tomatoes off your hands.

Once you get your plants, if they are greenhouse-grown, harden them off for a week or so before transplanting (leave them outside for just a couple of hours the first day, then gradually increase the length of time, watering as needed). Before you transplant, amend your soil with a good planting mix or use a potting soil for tomatoes in pots. Plant them in the evening or on a cloudy day, and they will be less likely to droop. To make for a stronger plant, bury tomato stems up to the plant's second true set of leaves (they'll develop roots all along the buried stem).

Stake or cage as needed (depending on the variety), water as necessary, fertilize, and you'll have a tomato crop that can't be beat!

A note to those growing tomatoes in pots on a narrow patio: you can espalier tomatoes! They won't produce as well but if it's the only way you'll have the room to grow them at all, try it—half a crop is better than being stuck with the tasteless 'tomatoes' sold in the supermarkets.