Inciardi Tomatoes

Have you ever heard of Inciardi paste tomatoes? I hadn’t until last year when I started following Anastasia Inciardi on Instagram. She had just learned of her family connection to the tomato!

In 1900, Enrico Inciardi came to America from Sicily. He sewed vegetable seeds into the hem of his clothing in order to bring familiar foods to his new home while passing inspection at Ellis Island. What is now known as the Inciardi paste tomato was included with those seeds! Enrico (Henry) ended up in Chicago where he was a cabinet maker. His first wife, Antoinetta, was one of 844 passengers who died in the infamous Eastland disaster in 1915. He later remarried, had a son, and grew the tomatoes throughout his life until his death in 1948. Since then, his tomatoes almost became instinct, with only a small handful of gardeners growing them in an around Downers Grove, Illinois.

When I learned about this tomato, I immediately wanted to grow it! Downers Grove is only about 20 minutes away from Forest Park and I loved this seed’s story and that it came all the way from Italy. I looked for some seeds online, but had no success, so I turned to Reddit to ask if anyone knew where I could get my hands on some. A nice Redditor suggested they’d seen them in the seed bank at the St. Charles Public Library. I happen to know someone who works there so I reached out to see if she could confirm. I was fully prepared to drive to St. Charles, but she kindly offered to mail them to me! (Thank you Anna and Mollie!)

Back in March, this envelope of priceless seeds arrived in my mailbox. I was so nervous to plant them because I’ve never successfully grown tomatoes from seed before. I got some grow lights and a growing mat and kept an eye on the 12 seeds every day until I finally saw some teeny seedlings emerging!

Most of my seeds emerged and made it to the hardening off process. I managed to transplant four strong plants in my garden bed and another two in a large pot in the yard. I gave my dad a few seedlings as well. Then, we left for Japan, so the fate of the plants was left to Karen who was caring for Presley and our garden while we were gone.

Here’s what they looked like when we got home in June. They were all healthy and happy thanks to Karen’s diligent watering during what ended up being a long drought that lasted almost the entire time we were in Japan. Whew!

A few weeks later, we had tomatoes!!

We’ve lost a few fruits to blossom end rot, but so far we’ve harvested ten Inciardis. I’m trying to pull them at “first blush” so they don’t split on the vine or get eaten by a critter. They then finish ripening on my counter.

When they’re fully ripened, they are a really lovely shade of red-orange. Last Wednesday, they were ripe and ready to become a fresh tomato sauce. I chopped them up and cooked them down with lots of garlic, olive oil, and salt, pureed it all with an immersion blender, and we served it over fresh pasta. Four tomatoes was just enough for the two of us.

It felt so gratifying to take this heirloom tomato all the way from seed into a homemade dinner! I am looking forward to cooking more sauce this week and freezing it for the winter.

Oh, and I’ve already started saving seeds from my best fruits to plant again next year!