US (CA): Tomato wizard breeds wondrous varieties

Brad Gates creates tomatoes like the food world has never seen. With such evocative names as Berkeley Tie-Dye, Big Yellow Zebra and Pork Chop, his varieties come in black, blue, purple, pink, orange, yellow and green plus combinations and stripes.

They taste even better than they look. That’s made Gates’ tomatoes highly prized by Napa Valley restaurant chefs and tomato fanatics as well as home gardeners nationwide.

Gates, 48, started his tomato odyssey more than 20 years ago while helping a friend sell produce at farmers markets. Gates soon started growing his own tomatoes to sell. He collected seed from open-pollinated heirloom varieties that can cross naturally, creating new hybrids.

“I was just trying to find a niche and actually sell tomatoes for more than it cost to grow them,” Gates said. “I was naturally drawn to purple and odd-colored tomatoes.”

A Napa native, Gates founded Wild Boar Farms in Suisun Valley, what he calls “the Napa Valley of tomatoes. It’s a little hotter, a little brighter (than Napa) with 90 feet of top soil. Conditions are perfect.”

Read more at The Sacramento Bee