The Leamington No 1 tomato is a brilliant red plum-shaped tomato on 18” plants. It is productive, container friendly, and easy to grow. The paste tomatoes have a very good sweet-tangy taste.
And Leamington No 1 comes with a great story. Read on!
Our research suggests Leamington No 1 was likely a main paste tomato used by Heinz at their former tomato producing plant in Leamington. Ontario.
A bit of background information.
Leamington, Ontario is the ‘Tomato Capital of Canada’ — see the postcard of the ‘Big Tomato’ in Leamington, c. 1961. For over 100 years (1909-2014), Heinz owned a tomato processing plant in Leamington and made products from tomatoes grown by local farmers — see Postcard 2 for a picture of the tomato processing plant c. 1958. Heinz supplied the farmers with seed for planting which was the high-water mark of tomato breeding. It is likely that Leamington No 1 (which was donated to Plant Gene Resources Canada by the master Canadian tomato breeder Dr. Ernie Kerr) was a main paste variety used by Heinz.
The story of ‘Leamington No 1’ is also interesting because of its association with the ‘Ketchup War’.
The Ketchup War was the ‘battle’ between Heinz and French’s ketchup brands for a place in Canadians’ fridges.
When Heinz closed the Leamington plant in 2014, the town was dealt a huge economic and psychological blow.
But soon after Heinz’s departure, French’s stepped in and started to have its ketchup made at the Leamington plant. They used Canadian grown tomatoes which provided contracts for tomato farmers and jobs in the factory and. French’s — who are more familiar for their mustard — highlighted their use of Canadian grown tomatoes on their ketchup bottles.
The Ketchup War ‘officially’ started when a local construction worker named Brian Fernandez posted on Facebook that he would no longer be buying Heinz’s ketchup and had switched to French’s. His post resonated with a lot of people (receiving 300,000+ likes), and a grass roots movement took off with people switching ketchup brands. There is a CBC documentary about the events called “Inside the Ketchup War”.
Now you can grow your own ketchup:)
Our original seedstock came from Plant Gene Resources Canada (PGRC).
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A big thank you to Renee Charron for sharing her pictures with us. Renee took pictures of our Leamington No 1 tomato seeds in front of the ‘Big Tomato’ in Leamington (it’s still there!) and in front of the chimney at the tomato processing plant (you can read ‘Heinz’ on the chimney — Renee mentioned it is the same chimney that you can see in the vintage postcard). Thank you Renee for helping to repatriate Leamington No 1.
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How to Plant: Start seeds indoors 6 weeks before the last frost. Plant seed 5mm (¼ inch) deep. Transplant after the danger of frost has passed/later spring.
