Handed Down

Probably one of my absolutely favourite varieties of tomato in my whole garden two years ago when I had bumper crops is the Black Krim tomato. Can you believe it, before the Soviet Bloc collapsed, no one in the west had even heard of this amazing tomato, which has such a long heirloom heritage? A whole whack of seeds came flooding out of that region of the world when the Iron Curtain collapsed. The tomato itself is absolutely delicious, with black dappling speckling its exterior- one of the famous "black" tomatoes that come from eastern Europe. I thought it was marvie, as the sixties children used to say.

Black Krim is lush, sweet, deep, fabulousity. It tastes of the earth and organicity. It comes from an island in the Ukraine of which there is virtually no knowledge on the entire world wide web- the island of Krim. I hunted for pictures; I hunted for all sorts of things, and there is virtually nothing of the sort. I envy the Island its mystery. I grew it on my island and it bounded out of the ground in one long graceful reaching. It was among my most successful and reliable tomatoes, absolutely steeped in history. So, I recommend it to everyone.

I wish I had asked my grandmother's very best friend of several years about the elusive, mystical Krim before she tragically died of a heart attack. She was Ukranian, full of love and warmth and interesting kitchen tales. She adored my grandmother, who would routinely accompany her places several times a month, and my grandmother in turn adored and doted on her daughter. When my grandfather died, her huge heart (the irony when it failed is not lost on me) were a solace to my grandmother in her loss.

I found this wonderful site, Tatiana's tomato base, which had all sorts of information about the Black Krim tomato that they had listed from Heritage Harvest Seed, which is run by a young woman of partial eastern European ancestry in Carman, Manitoba, whom I had a wonderful chat with when I telephoned two years ago. Here is what her self devised seed catalogue had to say about it:

" A very popular heirloom that originates from the Isle of Krim in the Black Sea off the coast of the Crimean Peninsula. This is one of the first heirloom vegetables that my mother and I grew and is largely responsible for my “obsession” with heirloom vegetables today. The medium to large size fruit are oblate and usually have numerous cracks around the stem end. The color varies according to the climate but generally the hotter the climate the darker the fruit. In my climate the fruit are a dark purplish color with green shoulders and the taste is intense. Definitely one of the tastiest tomatoes that I have ever eaten. Excellent for slicing, salads, and tomato sandwiches. Indeterminate, regular leaf foliage. (85 days from transplant)."

What I really liked about this woman was that she was trying to provide a Canadian alternative to the American South's Baker Creek Heirloom seeds, which is such an amazing company that I remember being quite happy to support her project and place a large order. She was so serious about following Baker Creek's example that she also gave all of her customers a free packet of seeds and she slipped in an heirloom tomato variety that she knew I would like given our personal conversation on the phone, in which she had told me how she and her boyfriend were basically running her farm, an inheritance property, singlehandedly. Interesting, n'est-ce pas? I know, I thought so, too.