Jersey Tomato’s Spirit Ripens

The quintessential Jersey tomato is the one you can taste even decades after its flavor first burst on your tongue. It’s that indelible, summer-defining tomato you picked up at a farmstand on the White Horse Pike in Hammonton in 1960 and have been trying to buy, or grow, ever since… "We constantly hear the question, ‘What happened to the Jersey tomato?’ " says horticulturist Tom Orton, noting that aesthetics, shelf life, and sliceability long ago eclipsed flavor in importance among mass market vendors… Since 2010, they’ve been breeding a better version of the famous "Rutgers" variety, which became synonymous with the Jersey tomato for decades after it was released to the public in 1934… Despite its fame and popularity, the Rutgers was never patented, and was so frequently crossbred by various seed companies that it ultimately lost its distinctiveness.