How I became a tomato lover after decades of detesting the fruit
Hanover County, Va. — I have never liked tomatoes.
This is not a wise statement to say here in Hanover County, Virginia, when I was visiting the home of Master Tomato Growers David Hunsaker and Barbara Hollingsworth in the middle of peak harvest.
I just don’t like the texture or acidity, I tell them.
“Maybe you didn’t have any good ones,” suggests David, as he offers me a Sun Gold cherry, the size of a golf ball. Tomatoes, in a mosaic of brilliant greens, reds, dark purples and yellow in all different shapes, just picked this morning, are spread out for sorting on a pool table in the couple’s basement.
I popped the tomato in my mouth—tarter than a plum, as juicy as an orange, and sweet as honey, unlike any tomato I have ever seen or tasted.
Today under the name Village Garden RVA, they grow over 325 varieties, as well as 100 types of chiles, using sustainable and organic practices. “We like to experiment. We look for old and obscure tomatoes,” David says. The heirlooms range from the hefty 3-pound Goatbag, in the shape of a goat’s udder, to the petite Sun Gold cherry. There’s the misshapen, dark purple Ukrainian, and the bright red Reisentraube, the hiking tomato that you can break easily into sections without dripping juice. The Oxheart, a seedless dense kind with 20 different variations, is their favorite.
“Diversity is the key, I mean it in every sense. We are a very accepting couple of people. We want to reinforce the diversity of nature. We want people to appreciate all the shapes and colors and tastes of these amazing fruit.”
David Hunsaker, Tomato Farmer
Tomato Paradise
Dating back to the 1800s, Hanover County, Virginia, has been known for its luscious tomatoes. In their one-acre plot, David and Barbara have created “a tomato paradise,” in the words of Food and Wine magazine. They’ve built up a following among Virginia chefs and foodies who love the complex, varied flavors which they can’t get in the typical supermarket. Heirlooms do not travel well in crates. They get smushed and mishandled, says David. Refrigeration, used to extend shelf life, robs the tomatoes of flavor and texture.
What makes the Hanover tomatoes so delicious?
“It’s the soil,” says David. A loamy mix with a touch of clay exists in Hanover County only on the east side of 95, along the Eastern Seaboard Fall Line that intersects with the Coastline. Their garden is situated on a slope, protected by a forest from frost. The climate is perfect, with cold nights and hot days and just the right amount of rain as opposed to more precipitation in the mountainous regions around Charlottesville.
When David retired from a career as a health care executive in 2004, he bought the ten acres of forested land next door to a horse farm, adjoining a suburban development in Mechanicsville–located a few miles west of Interstate 95 between Richmond and Washington. Growing up in a poor coal-mining community in southwest Virginia, he wanted to grow the heirloom tomatoes that sustained his family during hard times. He cleared a few acres and built a greenhouse for a small vegetable garden. When he met Barbara, who shared his love of farming, they began growing and selling 50 different varieties at local farmers’ markets in 2011.
Tomato heirloom boom
“After the market, we had all these tomatoes,” Barbara recalls. “We started going to restaurants in Richmond, taking them in the truck.” Most chefs were just starting to work in the afternoon. “They would come out to the truck and would say, what are you doing? Where did these come from?” They were sold. At one time, they made kimchi and bottled herbal blends to sell, but the tomato has taken priority. It has all morphed into a business and lifestyle as rewarding as it is delicious.
They select seeds from specialty catalogues and plant over 4,000 seedlings in tiny containers in February. The couple works every stage to the end of the harvest in August. “We’re it. We grow from seed. It’s very hard work,” David says. He adds, it is not a lucrative business, grossing no more than $30.000 a year; they are lucky to have savings.
“We are in love and love what we do,” David adds.
On my tour of the tomato garden, David and Barbara pick specimens in the first blush of ripeness to take to their customers in the afternoon. Beside the tomatoes, chili plants are flourishing in a geodesic dome, and a big banana tree shades a corner of the garden. While heirloom varieties are more subject to blight and disease, no bugs, rotting tomatoes, or significant weeds intrude on the neat rows.
Barbara hands me sweet tomatoes from the vines to try—a lovely peach tomato and a unique coin-sized fruit, covered in a gauzy husk—Aunt Molly’s ground cherry. I savor the sweet, tropical flavors of this tomatillo.
No wonder the top chefs and foodies are going wild over the rich, diverse tastes of heritage tomatoes. The demand has increased so much that they no longer make the rounds of farmers’ markets. Only Yellow Umbrella Provisions in Richmond carries RV tomatoes.
RVA tomatoes find a place in high end restaurants
During Covid, Jason Tesauro, sommelier at Barboursville winery, David and Barbara, hatched the idea of Supper/Summer Somm, a series of dinners developed by top chefs in Virginia and DC to showcase their heirlooms. (Find out where and when here) In addition, David and Barbara opened their home to a limited number of diners July 16 for a Tomato Jubilee with music, tours of the tomato garden, forest walks, free favors, courtesy of their sponsor Duke’s mayo and more.
The restaurants promote the name R-V tomatoes, or RVA, on their menus with the same zeal they reserve for Napa Valley wines. For last year’s Tomato Jubilee Extravaganza, L’auberge Chez Francois, rated the top French restaurant in the Washington, D.C. area, featured fresh heirloom R-V gazpacho and R-V tomato and herb-crusted local sauteed rockfish on its 7-course menu. In Barboursville Friday August 4, Executive Chef Michael Clough is preparing R-V tomatoes in focaccia, risotto and a local peach tart with tomato gelato, among other items, to be paired with Barboursville wines for $155 per person.
The ultimate tomato sandwich
Back in the living room, laying down a flat full of fresh tomatoes, David asks if I would like a tomato sandwich, something I have avoided all my life. With the introduction of these unique tastes, I decide to try it.
He slices three small fresh yellow gems and lathers two pieces of white bread with Duke’s mayonnaise. “Only the cheap white bread and Duke’s mayonnaise, with a little salt and pepper,” says David. I take one bite and devour it in six luscious bites. I’m a total convert now.
Is this on the menu of the high-end restaurants?
No, says David, but all the chefs love tomato sandwiches , made exactly this way. With a fresh R-V tomato, it’s a gourmet lunch.
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What are R-V growing secrets for the best-ever tomatoes? Here are David’s answers to questions:
He begins, “The big issue is plant as deep as possible to give you a better root structure.”
How do you fight blight?
You can’t avoid blight. But you can reduce the chances with sterilized compost, of 3-4 inches, refreshed each year so you don’t have pathogens from last year.
Carefully pinch leaves off from the bottom of the plant.
Avoid over-watering. Water from the ground up, without splashing any water on the leaves or fruit. Keep tomatoes off the ground.
How do you avoid chemicals?
We use fresh compost and a mushroom mix that we order.
Spray with soapy water to kill aphids. Castile soap, unscented, mixed with water. In the greenhouse, nwem oil and pyretheum, can wipe out other tough pests.
Do you use stakes or string to support towering plants?
Both. Set stakes 8 feet apart. We create an ellipse, twisting the twine (sisal) from stake to stake. It’s called the Florida weave.
How do you avoid refrigeration?
Eat.