In recent months, there has been a tremendous interest worldwide in what has been dubbed the "Ugly Tomato", brought on largely by extensive coverage in the press. In many ways, this was brought on by the recent action of the Florida Tomato Committee who chose to block the sale of the trademarked tomato variety "Ugly Ripe", a tomato derived from the old French heirloom tomato variety Marmande. The Ugly Ripe Tomato is solely produced by Santa Sweets Incorporated, who are the same company who introduced the grape tomato variety "Santa" or "Santa Sweet".

"UglyRipe" is a registered brand name for the Santa Sweets beefsteak style tomato and is probably responsible for the coining of the term "ugly tomato". Due to the variety's irregular appearance, which is contrary to the standard round tomatoes regularly produced by Florida tomato growers, The Florida Tomato Committee, which consists of twelve of Santa Sweet's competitors charged that the Ugly Ripe was ruining the reputation of Florida produced tomatoes and promptly blocked all transit of the variety from Florida into other states. The Santa Sweets Company has reportedly lost over 2.8 million dollars worth of revenues as a result of this action. In light of this violation of free trade, the politically motivated are encouraged to visit Santa Sweet's "Ugly Ripe Protest Campaign" page for information on what you can do to help.

But just what are Ugly Tomatoes?

Since Santa Sweet's introduction of the Ugly Ripe Tomato to stores in 1999, the term "Ugly Tomato" has since grown to be applied to all Heirloom Tomatoes.

And what then are Heirloom Tomatoes?

Originally, the term “heirloom”, in reference to gardening, was coined during the early 1970’s to identify those vegetable and flower varieties that had originated with a particular family of people and had subsequently been passed down from one generation to the next up to modern day. Typically, these varieties were obtained a single source who had maintained them so many years. Often these varieties were completely unique and had been limited to only one or two gardens per era. This not only made these varieties very rare, but also made them very desirable by gardeners who revelled in the idea of preserving a very small part of agricultural history, and probably most importantly, in the idea of being one of only a few people with the variety.  

For a few years, the above definition proved to be satisfactory, but as heirloom seeds, and in particular, heirloom tomatoes became more popular, the definition soon changed. Chances are, due primarily to the seed and plant dealers who wished to capitalize on the heirloom market, many old non-heirloom varieties of tomatoes such as Marglobe, Livingston’s New Stone, Henderson’s Ponderosa or Rutgers, suddenly became marketed as “heirlooms”. Meanwhile, as the plant collectors became more and more obsessed with heirlooms, many of these people sought out previously unknown foreign varieties and introduced them as heirlooms. 

In more recent years, probably the most common definition of what an heirloom tomato is, is that an heirloom tomato is any tomato variety that is not a hybrid and has been in cultivation for at least fifty years.

And why would anyone want to grow heirloom or so called ugly tomatoes?

Well, it's all about taste!

Almost everyone agrees that the commercial tomatoes of today don't taste like tomatoes should taste. Many go as far as to say that they "taste like cardboard" or seem "completely tasteless". This is due to the fact that commercial tomatoes are typically NOT bred for taste, with the Ugly Ripe being one of the few exceptions. In fact, like just about every other aspect of the food industry, commercial tomatoes are bred for early maturity, high production, uniformity, appearance and most importantly, they are selected to withstand long distance shipping. A genuine tomato taste is really the last thing on their minds!

This is in complete contradiction with the way things were done over 50 years ago when consumers demanded a high quality tomato blessed with a wonderful flavor. In the old days, taste came first and very little attention was paid to their exterior appearance. As a result, they came in a wide range

So are "ugly tomatoes" really ugly?

No, they are just REAL tomatoes!