A standout in the tomato patch
Of the dozen tomato varieties displayed at Vang Thao’s stand on July 21, one with purplish black skin over a flaming orange ground color stood out spectacularly. It’s a new variety, Indigo Rose, colored by anthocyanins, the same pigments responsible for the dark color in cherries, apple skins and blood oranges, but not previously significant in cultivated tomatoes.
This is noteworthy not so much because of the incredible flavor — it’s nice but not memorable — but because of the potential health benefits and its sheer oddity.
Tomatoes generally get pink color from lycopene, orange and yellow from carotenoids and green from chlorophyll; the dusky purplish brown of tomatoes such as Cherokee Purple comes from lycopene combined with pheophytin, a brown pigment derived from chlorophyll breakdown. However, wild species of tomatoes from Chile, Peru and the Galapagos Islands do contain anthocyanins; starting in the 1950s, researchers crossed them with cultivated tomatoes. (There’s one excellent older variety, Purple Smudge, that has just a smidgen of anthocyanin; look for it at Elser’s stand at the Hollywood and Torrance markets.)
Jim Myers, professor of horticulture at Oregon State University, used conventional crossing (not genetic modification) of these selections to breed the much darker Indigo Rose, which he released this year. Because of its beauty and novelty, it quickly caught on with home gardeners and farmers market growers, including Vang Thao of Fresno, who sells at both Torrance markets and at Santa Monica Saturday, and Mark Carpenter of Santa Paula, who is at Santa Moni- ca on Wednesdays and Saturdays.
Anthocyanins are flavorless, although genes linked to their presence affect taste. Indigo Rose, whose intermediate size makes it a “saladette” in tomato parlance, has a nice balance of sweetness and acidity, and good tomato flavor, although it doesn’t compare in richness and complexity with the finest heirlooms such as Black Krim. Its ripeness can be difficult to judge, as the usual visual cues can be masked by purple; skin exposed to the sun tends to be dark and shaded portions reddish orange. The anthocyanins are just in the skin, and because the dark pigment is water soluble, it largely disappears when Indigo Rose is cooked.
Within two years, Myers plans to introduce new anthocyanin-rich tomato varieties in varying sizes, with improved disease resistance, even better flavor and anthocyanins throughout the flesh. “Our main motive is the health benefits, but aesthetics also plays a role,” he says.
Picks of the week: Lima beans from McGrath; garbanzos from K&K Farms; Piel de Sapo melons and Kyoho grapes from Ha.