At Per Se, the Cepe Custard is made with “Eckerton Hill Farm’s Tomatoes, Nasturtium Capers and Mizuna.

Stark’s tomatoes have become a brand unto themselves, called out by name on restaurant menus. From the tiniest cherries to the monsters that can weigh three pounds, each tomato variety has a unique flavor profile, from the earthy smoke of the Black Krim, to the fruity brightness of the Striped German. Some are boldly colored or beautifully striped others, funny looking with splits and cracks. Today Stark grows over 100 varieties of top notch tomatoes, from the more familiar varieties-Beefsteak, Roma, Sungolds-to the oddballs-Radiator Charlie’s Mortgage Lifters, Green Giants, and Kelsie’s Yellow Romas. From water shortages to sandy soil, he has faced every agricultural nightmare, but he thinks that some of what’s wrong with his land is what makes his tomatoes taste so good.

With mixed feelings, Stark returned to Pennsylvania to follow in his father’s footsteps, and now farms on three separate properties outside of Allentown.

When the seedlings (all 3,000 of them) starting outgrowing the apartment, he knew it was time to move back to the country. Raised on a farm in Pennsylvania, he was living as a struggling writer and consultant in New York City until a fateful day in 1996 when he started growing tomato seedlings in his Brooklyn brownstone. “Without them we couldn’t have built this farm up into what it is.” It’s symbiotic: the chefs look to Stark to grow new varieties of tomatoes to keep their menus fresh and interesting, and it’s the chefs that have helped launch and keep Stark’s career growing: “When we had a lot of tomatoes the chefs put a lot of tomato dishes on their menus, very generously for us,” says Stark. Daniel Boloud gets oxheart tomatoes-the coeur de bouef he loves so much from France-grown specifically for him. Thomas Keller, Mario Batali, Jean-Georges Vongerichten, Danny Meyer, Dave Pasternak, and Bill Telepan all get box after box of tangy Green Zebras, smokey Black Krims, and luscious Brandywines from this local tomato man. New York City chefs flock to the farmer Tim Stark for the juiciest, tastiest, rarest heirloom tomatoes around. If you want to find the Eckerton Hill Farm stand at the Union Square Greenmarket, just look for the white jackets.

Heirloom by Tim Stark