Taste is pleased to introduce the Taste Tomato, bred the old fashioned way to our specific requirements for freshness, shape and flavor.
The Taste Tomato had its beginnings in September 2006 when Taste Catering sponsored the opening of the Sunol AgPark, a partnership of organic farmers and the City of San Francisco. The City’s watershed land in Sunol, CA is some of the most fertile farmland in the state and a prime opportunity for organic farming.
Several farmers rented plots for farming and one of these farmers is Fred Hempel of Baia Nicchia Farm and Nursery. In addition to raising some of the tastiest tomatoes in the region, Fred devotes considerable energy to breeding new tomato varieties—the old fashioned way, the natural way. In this day of industrial agriculture, diversity of species is often lost to the economic needs of a resource-wasting distribution system designed to support big-ag business.
When Fred suggested breeding a tomato with flavor, shape and a growing season that met Taste Catering’s needs, we jumped at the opportunity. Not only did this give Taste a product we needed but it also gave us the opportunity to support a cause we dearly value—reversing the loss of plant varieties.
Fred offered Taste a deal, the opportunity to have the new tomato exclusively our own for a year. We decided that the one year exclusive would give us time to develop special recipes as well as provide Fred some fee income which we considered to be “seed” capital for his very important breeding work. The new tomato variety is called “Taste” and after the year of exclusivity, its seeds will be marketed through the Seeds of Change catalog, spreading the cultivation of this new, useful and tasty breed in gardens and farms throughout the world.
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