The beauty of tomatoes is more than skin deep. My 35 years of experience as a gardener, coupled with considerable book learning, have taught me that heirlooms, ripened on the vine in full sun, are the most delicious tomatoes of all.

Tomatoes have never been more popular. Yet tomato land in America today is dominated by commercial F1 hybrids, which have only their unyielding flesh to recommend them to consumers. These hybrid tomatoes, bred to be grown in high plant densities and harvested mechanically, are a tool of industry and the market economy. Hybrids reduce biodiversity and prevent farmers and gardeners from saving harvested seed to regrow.

Heirloom tomatoes are the natural alternative, capable of breeding true from seed (unlike F1 hybrids) and designed to be homegrown. Many are living legacies -- old-time handed-down tomatoes, valued by generations of gardeners. Pollination expert Jeff McCormack captured an essential truth about growing heirloom tomatoes: "The world is a large garden, and there is room enough for everybody to cultivate a piece of happiness."

I've saved seeds many times from tomatoes whose pollination wasn't controlled (isolated, bagged, or caged), but it's a gamble with seed purity. Use fully ripe disease-free tomatoes for seed processing.

Seeds can be saved casually by, for example, squeezing them out on a paper napkin (I've done that scores of times in restaurants or when traveling) and air-drying them. Fermentation is the better route, though, because it removes germination inhibitors and the gelatinous sheath, and it may treat some seed-borne diseases. (For more options, visit Vegetable MD Online.)