I remember well the time quite a few years ago when I first actually saw a Brandywine at a small farmers market. My great anticipation upon picking it up was that I was in for a real treat, as this was, from all I had read, supposed to be THE tomato that would take us back to years of long ago back in the early to mid-sixties.
Even back then, tomato fanciers were a unique breed. I was first introduced to them when I worked at one of Atlanta's most successful family nurseries. I digress. In those days times were a changin and the tomato fanciers were split between those older folks who worshiped names like Rutgers and the somewhat younger generation of those who loved the new kid on the block, the Big Boy. I'm almost sixty now, but I relished many a great tomato sandwich with rich acid bite that was the perfect contrast to Hellmans mayo. Times were simpler then.
I studied that Brandywine, bought it, took it home, cut into it and took my first bite. Like much that has changed since the mid sixties, this new tomato being the example of the most delicious tomato in America left me wondering...."This is it?" YUCK! But, some years later I found some seed for a Brandywine and planted it. After some struggle, I got these "heirlooms" going and actually got a few fruit, but mostly blights that withered the vines to all manner of yellows and dead browns. For many years thereafter, I swore off heirlooms as a class with my notions, reaffirmed by occasional sample of odd yellow and striped fruits and there it was again..that same mealy, sweet, bland, oddly shaped fruit that ever entrenched my prejudices.
This year, my efforts supported by several of you wonderful folks, I will try again. Perhaps by now "old time flavor" has actually become something other than a marketing term...rather like "organic"!
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