What is an heirloom tomato? It's basically a non-hybrid tomato. The tomatoes you find with your local grocery store are usually almost always perfectly round red and not grown locally. These are not heirloom tomatoes. Those are hybrid tomatoes, grown specifically for supermarkets and mass consumption. heirloom tomatoes are usually odd shaped and not usually bright red. They can be many different colors and even different color blends. I frequently find small selections available at local farmers markets. Your typical heirloom will be denser and have less water and seeds than a standard hybrid. Therefore, the flavor is more concentrated and in most people's opinions including my own, they are better tasting. So if heirlooms are better tasting, why don't supermarkets sell more of them? Well by growing hybrids, farmers can select disease and bug resistant varieties. Also hybrids are typically a smaller plant with a higher yield. More fruit and less space with fewer problems. Also hybrids have a thicker skin, which also makes them easier to transport long distances without damaging the fruit. Since most heirloom varieties are indeterminate, the plant can grow very large. Six-foot tall plants are not uncommon, so please take this into consideration when growing heirlooms and selecting a proper trellis. As with other tomato varieties, plucking off suckers will help your tomatoes grow larger. The outside of an heirloom tomato does not grow evenly, so you may have some overgrow spots or even splits. This is normal and does not indicate insects or a bad fruit. The inside of an heirloom tomato can be a very different color from the outside, orange, green, purple, black, and pink are all normal colors for insides and or outsides of heirloom tomatoes. Since tomatoes ripen from the inside out, you can harvest them when you see the outside starting to change color. However, most growers prefer to wait an additional week or two after they start seeing the color changes. A single hornworm can devour an entire tomato in a day, and just two or three can completely destroy a plant in a week. You can easily pull them off your plants and discard them. I tend to collect them into a bucket and then feed them to the fish and ducks in the pond behind my house. To reduce the risk of invasive hornworms, you can put some whole, super hot peppers into a blender with some water and blend it up, then strain the water into a spray bottle and spray the leaves of your plants every few days. You can store the spray in your refrigerator for about a week, but be careful not to get any on your skin or in your eyes. If you are looking to obtain some heirloom tomato seeds and grow your own, just shop around. I buy my heirloom seeds from a guy out of Wisconsin known as Botanica seeds. The owner, Mr. Ritter, is nice and I have yet to be disappointed with any of my orders from him. He sells packets of individual varieties. However, if you like surprises, he sells bags of mixed variety heirloom tomato seeds and quantities of 500 or 1000 on eBay. And he usually throws in a bonus at no extra cost. This will guarantee that you have a random colorful selection of heirloom tomatoes come harvest time. I'll leave a link to the Botanica eBay store in the description of this video. As for eating heirloom tomatoes, they can be large and dense and are great for just about anything. In my house, we enjoy a colorful, kept-raised-eat salad. Also thick sliced on a grilled cheese sandwich or any other sandwich for that matter is incredible. A word of warning though, once you eat an heirloom tomato, the store-bought hybrids will no longer hold your interest. Please don't forget to rate and subscribe. If you care to tell us your opinion or question, please do so in the comment section. Thanks and happy growing!