Isis Candy: Hanna’s Tomato Tastings 2007
Part of Hanna’s Tomato Tastings 2007
I got this one on an etymological whim. Isis is an Egyptian goddess, regarded by many as the greatest goddess of all time. She is the connection between man and god. So it peaked my interest to try a tomato that someone thought was good enough to be regarded as her personal stash of M&M’s.
The description from the company I bought it from reads:
Gorgeous fruits are marbled with red. Rich flavor is a complex blend of sweetness and fruitiness. Each fruit has a spectacular cat’s eye starburst on the blossom end. Plants are loaded with ¾†– 1½†fruits on short trusses in double rows of 6-8. Introduced through SSE in 1992 by Joe Bratka. Indeterminate. 70-80 days.
The Beauty Pageant:
Size: This tomato is the size of an average cherry tomato, so about the size of a bouncy ball.
Shape: Round as it should be. Interesting coloration on the skin, a kind of marbled red and orange, but the “starburst” effect at the blossom end is very faint.
The inside: Pretty small seed and medium size wall for a cherry tomato.
Texture: Nice and smooth. Not mealy and not too seedy. Some gel squish, bot not much.
Tasting:
Off the Vine Tasting: This tomato has a sort of melon flavor but not as sweet. Like low sugar melon. There is a pleasant tomatoey aftertaste that really sticks around.
Sliced and Salted Tasting: Salt turns up the low sugar melon flavor but reduces the nice after flavor.
Cooking Thoughts: These are nice cherries, but they are cherries so they probably would not do well in any kinds of sauces. Certainly, these would be good in a salad. I am thinking that they would be good on appetizers.
Growing Notes:
This is being grown on strings. Unfortunately, this tomato plant has been hit by a wilt (after being planted in a clean bed), so I can’t comment on how well it is performing. That being said, it was hit very hard and very fast by the wilt, so I suspect that it is particularly susceptible to it. I will probably only be able to harvest a handful of tomatoes before the plant succumbs completely.
Will Hanna grow this one again:
Probably not. The flavor is okay but not a wowsa. This, combined with the fact that I believe it is particularly wilt susceptible mean that I probably will not grow it again.
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I grew these little tomatoes last year. I had no problem with wilt. The leaves had some spots by the end of July but overall the plant remained healthy until the first frost. The fruit tasted a little like salmon. If you salt it tastes more like brook trout. Once you swallow it, a strong tomato flavor comes back up your throat and you can actually enjoy this tomato all over again. Unfortunately it doesn’t taste as good the second time around.
this is one of my favorite tomatoes and I am regrettably not growing it this year. So prolific, colors are varied and remind me the tied dyed cloth ranging fom purple to green to pink. Late blooomers, did not seem to suffer wilt here in Colorado and were going strong in Sept.
IT WAS MY BEST ISIS .VG.
My plants tend to get powdery mold and then black mildew so it took me three years to get fruit from an Isis. When the leaves fell off I could not tell if the fruit was ripe yet; it was all shades of white, pale pink and yellow, and had no flavor at all.
I ran the fruit through a food mill and cooked it down to the consistency of canned sauce.
An amazing transformation took place; it was intense, sweet and tomatoey, miles better than the raw fruit.
The next year I planted two; both died fruitless.
This is not a strong tomato and I have grown it for three years. It requires more fertilizer than most. I grow in raised beds and in each bed there are 24 tomato plants. The first year they came up and were about to die while all the others were doing fine until I gave it an extra shot of fertilizer. It rebounded and did exceptionally well. The next year it succumb to tomato leaf curl blight. It shows little disease resistance. This year it is doing fine amongst all of the others. It is to me the best tasting tomato I have ever grown.