some people mentioned looking for places that advertise using heirloom tomatos, but you still have to give them a good pinch of salt
would love to join a startup that re-engineers flavor back into commercially-viable crops
In order to ship fruit long distance, they're harvested before they're ready, and artificially ripened in frozen containers. This lets them survive long journeys but kills a lot of the taste.
So your company would end up being a traceability and logistics one - what's the nearest place to your customers that grow fruit, how can you prove it, and how can you get it in their hands.
(Last two contracts were in artificial fruit ripening and supply chain traceability respectively).
I wonder what the science there is. You'd think the slower ripening in partial shade (often a week or more slower) would result in a more complex tasting tomato, but perhaps the flavor compounds never reach a critical mass.
But tbf, only for a few months when the many small farmers grow them outdoors and sell them for unbelievably cheap.
Rest of the time it's greenhouse tomatoes like everyone else.
Southern Exposure Seed Exchange: https://www.southernexposure.com/
Seed Savers Exchange https://www.seedsavers.org/
Open Source Seed Initiative partners with multiple seed exchanges: https://osseeds.org/
It's actually fascinating - I remember my grandmother scooping out the seeds out of vegetables and drying them, to be used next year.
The villagers also traded them as apparently they had different varieties.