Hanna’s Tomato Tastings 2006

My tomatoes are (finally) ripening and I have been feasting on many, many tomatoes in the past week or so.

Since there are hundreds of varieties of tomatoes, both heirloom and hybrid, to grow in the garden, one frequently has to rely on the advice and reviews of other gardeners to decide which tomatoes you will plant in your garden in the upcoming year. It is either that, or settle for the same old tomatoes you grow every year and spend a whole year wondering what delicious gem you are missing out on. Personally, I think wondering about what could have been better just sucks, but that is just me.

Even if you have you favorites, I would recommend that everyone try at least one new tomato in their garden each year. Biodiversity is important to both the planet and for the holy quest for the perfect tomato.

This year, I planted 16 different varieties of heirloom tomatoes. These varieties were:

• 1884
• Azoychka
• Big Rainbow
• Black Ethiopian
• Black Plum
• Black Zebra (Crop Failure)
• Carmello (No viable fruit due to early frost)
• Goose Creek
• Green Pineapple (No viable fruit due to early frost)
• Hawaiian Pineapple
• Marianna’s Peace
• Opalka (Crop Failure)
• Peacevine Crazy Cherry
• Sara Black
• Thai Pink
• White Beauty

Bonus Tastings

• Health Kick or Healthy Choice (From Neighbor Maxine)
• Enormous Plum (um… I think I got a different tomato than what I ordered but it was marked correctly)

So to help both my memory and your possible selections for next year, I am going to do a review of each tomato type. As I finish a review, I will link from this page to the review.

If you have grown a tomato on this list and have written your own review, simply leave a comment containing the URL of the tasting on the post about that tomato. As always, you can simply chime in within the comment your thoughts on that tomato.

If you would like to review a tomato that is not on this page, then leave a comment here with the name of the tomato variety and either the URL to the review on your site or just your thoughts on it.

BTW, if you have an opinion about a tomato that differs from mine, please post it. Tomatoes are much like wine. Everybody likes and dislikes things for different reasons. I promise, I will not be offended if you think a tomato I like is just the worst thing you ever tried.

So, here we go. Hanna’s Tomato Tastings 2006 is about to begin.