Part of Hanna’s Tomato Tastings 2010

It’s a true tomato garden tragedy. Hybrids on one side, Heirlooms on the other. And two star crossed tomato plants caught in between. “Oh Reisetomate, Reisetomate. Where for art thou, Reisetomate? Deny thy breeding and refuse thy heritage. Or, if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love, And I’ll no longer be a Hybrid. “

Unfortunately, this tragedy ends nearly the same as the Shakespearian one based on over hormonal children. My Juliet tomato is dying, as is the Reisetomate next to it. Tis a poison wilt that has taken them both (fortunately only manifesting in a bed with only a few tomato plants). So, what you see on that plate in the picture is all there will be. I am not sure the Reisetomate will produce at all.

Because this tomato plant is failing, I will state upfront that this tasting is suspect. Stressed plants do not produce the best of fruit.

I am embarrassed to say that, while I grew these plants from seed, I have no idea where I got them from. The packet I had them in is long gone, though a tickle at the back of my head tells me they were a seed trade.
The description from a place that sells the seeds reads:

Plant produces high yields of glossy red grape shaped tomatoes. Tomatoes are very sweet and perfect for salads and gourmet dishes. Grows in clusters like grapes too. Holds on the vine longer than any other cherry tomato.

The Beauty Pageant:

Size: Inch to inch and a half long.

Shape: Grape shape with a nipple on the end. I also have to say that they have a very pronounced sepal (that green thing at the top) that reminds me of a feminized Kermit the Frog collar.

Color: Solid red.

The inside:Thin walls with small seeds and a lance like core down the center. Almost no gel to speak of.

Texture: Very thick skin which is very noticeable when you eat it. Other than that, the texture is smooth and you can’t even feel the seeds.

Tasting:

Off the Vine Tasting: Very solid tomato flavor. Not at all sweet. The tomato flavor is very condensed and not at all complex. Not my cup of tea, but some people like a straight on tomato and this is one of those.

Sliced and Salted Tasting: Salting develops the pure tomato flavor of this tomato. It makes it more tomato-y and since it was pretty tomato-y before, this just makes it more in that realm.

Cooking Thoughts: A salad tomato if I ever saw one. I am not so keen on these for muching on their own as that skin is pretty distracting.

Growing Notes:

As stated, this is dying from wilt. It is suppose to be pretty disease resistant, but I can say that it has succumbed to the wilt in the bed as fast as the heirlooms did.

Will Hanna grow this one again:

Probably not. While I might give it a whack again just to see if the flavor gets more complex when not affected by disease, the skin on these is pretty icky.

Part of Hanna’s Tomato Tastings 2010

I bought the black cherry tomato because it combined by most favorite type of tomato (black tomatoes) with my least favorite (cherry tomatoes). I thought that in combination, I might find that final cherry tomato that I would really enjoy in the garden.

I can say that I am hopeful. These cherry tomatoes do certainly look like true black tomatoes. I just have to hope the flavor holds true to the color.

The description from the company I got it from reads:

It is not a plum, but a perfectly round cherry with classic black tomato flavor, sweet yet rich and complex. Fruit picks clean from the stem and is produced in abundance on vigorous, tall plants. These cherries are irresistibly delicious and a unique addition to the color spectrum of cherry tomatoes now available.

The Beauty Pageant:

Size: Slightly larger than a shooter marble but smaller than a golf ball. It is on the large side for a cherry tomato.

Shape: Very round. Near perfectly round, and I have harvested a good several dozen so far like this.

Color: Dusky pink on the bottom that gradually morphs into a dusky purple on top.

The inside:Medium size walls for a cherry tomato. Small seeds with rather firm gel. The core is almost as round as the outside of the tomato.

Texture: The skin is just thick enough that the cherry still has the ‘eyeball” effect, but it is certainly not as bad as some other cherry tomatoes I have tried. Once the skin pops though, the texture is smooth and silky. The seeds are small enough that they do not feel like seeds in the mouth.

Tasting:

Off the Vine Tasting: I like the flavor and it is almost exactly like they crossed a black tomato and a typical sweet cherry tomato and the fruit is the perfect balance of the two. It is interesting when you taste it, because your tongue is hit with both a deep, rich flavor and a sweet flavor at the same time. The flavor persists through when you swallow.

Sliced and Salted Tasting: Salting intensifies that dichotomy of rich and sweet. It is almost like the two ends of the flavor spectrum are pulled even further apart which make for an even more complex flavor.

Cooking Thoughts: It is a good salad tomato, but to be honest, I have been serving these as a side dish. Some nights we have them just plain and whole, and on other nights, halved, salted with some chopped basil thrown in. This is a great appetizer tomato. Just the right size.

Growing Notes:

Very vigorous vine, in both shape and production. I have had enough from this plant to keep tomatoes on the table every other night, despite the fact that my “big” tomatoes are under producing.

Will Hanna grow this one again:

Most likely yes. I love the flavor of this cherry tomato and my kids love the flavor as well. Which is important, because it make a good side dish that they will eat and would not just be a snitching and snacking tomato in the garden, which is what many other cherry tomatoes I have grown have turned into.

Part of Hanna’s Tomato Tastings 2010

Avast, ye maties. This blog post will be taking us well into the treacherous waters outside of the land of tomatoes. So, our tastie buds had better be ready. Savvy?

Ok, so I need to work on my pirate speak a lot before the next Talk Like A Pirate Day. But the point I am trying to make is that these little cherries’ name was the one and only reason I bought them. There I was sailing down the plant isle and I see a sign that says “Black Pearl Tomatoes.” Since I am a HUGE Pirates of the Caribbean fan (translation, I think Johnny Depp is really hot), I had to have these tomatoes. And since Rowena (from The Proud Garden) made the same comment about the name, I feel that this was a blatant marketing attempt on the part of the breeder. This is a hybrid, but I am not that kind of tomato snob (I am another kind of tomato snob, but if you have read long enough, you know what that is). Needless to say, the breeder’s marketing ploy has worked and I (along with most likely 100s of others) bought this tomato purely based on the name.

The description from the company I got it from reads:

A true treasure, ‘Black Pearl’ is two different flavors in one cherry tomato. Enjoy right off the vine, but be sure to put a big bowlful in the refrigerator for a special treat. When chilled, ‘Black Pearl’ has a unique, extra sweet, ‘Concord’ grape flavor. Indeterminate vines produce 1 ½ inches, purplish black fruits in abundance until fall. A rare pearl!

The Beauty Pageant:

Size: The size of shooter marbles

Shape: Mostly round but with just a bit of a flattened area on the top of the tomato. Uniform in shape and size.

Color: Deep orange-red on the bottom with classic green-brown black tomato shoulders. The shoulders fade down over the side to about midway down.

The inside:Thin walls and a moderate size core for the size. Seeds are very small. Gel is very loose and watery. Two chambers hold the seeds and gel.

Texture: The texture is pretty liquid. The gel is so loose, that it floods your mouth when you bite the tomato. The skin is thin along with the walls, which means that this does not have “pop” like eating an eyeball that you normally get with other cherry tomatoes.

Tasting:

Off the Vine Tasting: The flavor of this is really very interesting. It starts out really, really tart (which is the gel flooding your mouth), but the flesh is really, really sweet, so you get this cool melting from one extreme to the next.

Sliced and Salted Tasting: Salt really cranks up the tartness, but does nothing for the sweet. This means that the really nice flavor balance from before is completely thrown out of whack and that is not all that good.

Special Tasting: Since the seller claims that these tomatoes taste good cold, I am going to give this a try. I find this an interesting claim because normally you are told not to because it destroys some of the flavor chemicals in tomatoes. Maybe, for this tomato, it kills the right ones, which changes the flavor in a positive manner.

Nope, that was a fail. Chilling just made this tomato taste like a run of the mill tomato. It loses its personality completely. It tasted more like grapes before I chilled it.

Cooking Thoughts: I think that these would be disrespected if they were served any way but in a bowl as an appetizer for your guests at a dinner party or at least as a nice afternoon snack. Served as is, without accompaniment, so that their natural flavor can be appreciated.

Growing Notes:

Typical cherry tomato vine. It is all over the place and is producing prolifically.

Will Hanna grow this one again:

I would love to, but and this is a big but, it is a hybrid. Because of this, I can only grow it as long as the seller sells it. The first year the seller decides it does not sell well enough, it is gone from the market never to be seen again. A shame really.

Part of Hanna’s Tomato Tastings 2010

I have talked about Micro Tom Tomatoes before, way, way, way back when this blog was relatively new. I grow them on and off as purely decorative plants, because they are damn cute and weird. I realized this year that I had never done a tasting on them though.

These tomatoes don’t have much of a yield. That’s the consequence of only growing about 5” high. That’s right, look at the picture. That is a quarter nestled in there. That’s as big as they get.

Freak plants tend not to produce good tomatoes. When more time is spent on making a tomato unusual rather than tasty, taste suffers. So, for the record, I am not expecting much.

The description from the company I got it from reads:

Tomato Micro-Tom. The world’s smallest tomato plant. Plant only grows between 6-8 inches in height. Fruit is red and one inch in diameter. Succulent sweet flavor. Excellent for hanging containers, pots, small gardens, or indoor window sill..

The Beauty Pageant:

Size: Roughly the size of marbles – mostly large marbles. The tomatoes actually look almost too large for the plant.

Shape: An off-center round shape. Like they are trying very hard to be round but have tried to get to the front row of a Bieber concert.

Color: Orangish –red.

The inside: Rather thick walls for the size of the tomato and rather large seeds as well. The result is each fruit only has maybe 4-5 seeds in it. Very little gel, and the gel that is there is clinging tight to the few seeds.

Texture: Pretty mealy, and the skin is surprisingly thick.

Tasting:

Off the Vine Tasting: Plain Jane tomato flavor. More tart than sweet, which is surprising for a cherry tomato.

Sliced and Salted Tasting: Salt makes this a much sweeter tomato. Still not quite a cherry tomato sweetness, but much closer.

Cooking Thoughts: I am going to leave this as a “growing for the kids to snitch” tomato. Salad tomato if I could get more than 3 tomatoes off the plant at a time. But since the yield is so low, I would rather just let the kids get them.

Growing Notes:
Teeny, tiny plant. You would not plant this in a traditional veggie garden. It belongs in hanging baskets, window boxes and kids’ gardens. They are a very compact plant, which does cause some fungus issues sometimes.

Will Hanna grow this one again:
Will I grow it again for flavor? No. Will I grow it again because it is a freak of nature? Yes. It will show up in decorative plantings on and off for years to come.

It is that time of year again. When the summer gods and goddesses converge on the garden and conspire to make the magic of garden ripe tomatoes happen. Actually, they are a little lazy this year in that regard. I think it is due to the heat. It is too hot for tomatoes to ripen, but I do have one plant with ripe tomatoes (out  of 18), so this sets off the season for Hanna’s Tomato Tastings 2010.

I know, I know that I dropped the ball on the 2009 season, but my tomatoes plants ended up being destroyed by a groundswell of critters in my garden.  Not only could I not get tastings done, I could not even get tomatoes for myself.  I was sad.

But this year, thanks to an ingenious obstacle course consisting of a series of buckets, pots and garden tools, the animals have stayed away and my tomato plants are heavy with… um… green tomatoes.  I am sure they will be turning soon…

So here is the list for this year:

• Micro Tom
• Rainbow
• Reisetomate
• Henderson’s Pink
• Juliet
• Violet Jasper
• Lemon Boy
• Matina
• Black Pearl
• Purple Smudge
• Black Cherry
• Aunt Ruby’s Green
• Chile Verde

As always, your opinions on the tomatoes are wanted and encouraged.  What may do well here may not do well where you are and vice versa.  These tastings are so that we can place a record of how a tomato really tastes out there in cyberspace.  I also encourage you to blog about your own tomato tastings experiences on your blog.  I will happily link to any tomato tastings that other people do as well.

Here are links to previous years:
Hanna’s Tomato Tastings 2006
Hanna’s Tomato Tastings 2007
Hanna’s Tomato Tastings 2008
Hanna’s Tomato Tastings 2009

Part of Hanna’s Tomato Tastings 2009
As far as yellow tomatoes go, well for me they are hit or miss. I have tried some really great yellow tomatoes, and others, well, not so much. The reason yellow tomatoes are so ambiguous on the flavor scale is the fact that yellow tomatoes are either full flavored or “mild” flavored (read no flavor). Hearing that a tomato is mild flavored is like hearing your blind date has a mild personality. That’s the first sign that your evening will end early and that you should probably check your local TV listings for something more scintillating to spice up the rest of the night, like golf. So it goes with yellow tomatoes. Mild is not a word I like to hear associated with a tomato.

The description from the company I got it from reads:

This potato leaf heirloom originally from an old British seed company produces bright yellow golf ball sized, thin skinned, tangy, and delicious fruits. They are very unique in taste! Indeterminate. 75 days.

The Beauty Pageant:

Size: About the size of a golf ball is right. Bigger than a cherry tomato, but not by too much.

Shape: Very round.

Color: Bright, bright yellow. Like highlighter yellow.

The inside: Medium walls for this size tomato. Rather large seeds with juicy gel. There is a core that is also medium sized.

Texture: Rather on the soft and mealy side.

Tasting:

Off the Vine Tasting: As I feared, this is a “mild” tomato. Low acid in it makes for weak tomato flavor.

Sliced and Salted Tasting: Salt gives this tomato a little more personality (kind of like a shot of tequila does for that blind date) but you can only work with what you have.

Cooking Thoughts: This is a salad tomato if I ever saw one. Too small for anything else, really. It would be good on salads and used for appetizers. But, I would not pair it with any flavors that it would have to compete with. Otherwise it would just get lost.

Growing Notes:
Rather large plant and produces well. It looks like it may have late blight (judging by the bottom leaves) but it seems to keep going like a trooper.

Will Hanna grow this one again:
No. Just not my style of tomato. If you are looking for something “mild” (and there are lots of people who are) this is a good tomato, but I like a tomato with a little more force.

Part of Hanna’s Tomato Tastings 2009

This would be my freaky-deaky tomato of the season. It is a tomato that really, really wants people to think it is part of the very in hot pepper crowd. If you were not looking closely, you might mistake it for one. But even confused tomatoes can’t change who and what they are.

The description from the company I got it from reads:

The oblong red fruits are 3″ wide and 5″ long with orange and yellow stripes/speckles and decorative enough to keep in a basket on your kitchen counter until you are ready to cook with them. But, you will appreciate the hefty, meaty fruit with few seeds the most for the excellent flavor it has in sauce. You can also use these tomatoes fresh and sliced for sandwiches and hors d’oeuvres.

The Beauty Pageant:

Size: Anywhere from as long as my hand to as long as my finger. Somewhere as thick as two fingers and three fingers.

Shape: Long and pointy. Think a butch witch’s finger.

Color: Bright red with orange striation. The inside is a solid red.

The inside: Very few seeds with thin walls, but a thick core. Almost no gel.

Texture: This is a very mealy tomato, but fortunately, it has all the characteristics of a good sauce tomato.

Tasting:

Off the Vine Tasting: The flavor is straight tomato, and neither a strong nor a weak tomato flavor. Not all that memorable.

Sliced and Salted Tasting: Salt makes this tomato tangier. Gives it a little personality, like a shot of tequila gives a suburban housewife a bit more personality.

Cooking Thoughts: I don’t think that the feel of this tomato lends itself to appetizers, as the description suggests and has not enough unique flavor to eat on its own. But, it is a grade A sauce tomato.

Growing Notes:
Fairly healthy, but not robust. To tell the truth, from the time this tomato plant was a seedling, it always looked unhealthy. The leaves on this plant are naturally droopy. Every one of them I gave away elicited questions on their health because of the droopiness. It is hard to say if the adult plant is unhealthy or if it simply is just a perpetually sickly looking plant.

Will Hanna grow this one again:
No. Interesting tomato, but not enough production to make it a good choice for a saucing tomato.

Part of Hanna’s Tomato Tastings 2009

If tomatoes spoke, I imagine in my head that this one has a southern accent. Granted, according to its history, it would have a heavy Russian accent, but frankly, Tula does not sound like a cold Eastern Block city, but rather a warm and heavy aired US Southern city.

Regardless of where this tomato hails from, it is awful purrty. It even looks like a Southern Belle with all those ruffles. It even has ruffles on the inside. But the real question is if this tomato cupcake tastes as good as it looks.

The description from the company I got it from reads:

Russian heirloom that is a favorite black of many tomato aficionados. Unique, large 8-12 oz. dark tomato in a deep purplish-brown color.

The Beauty Pageant:

Size: Slightly smaller than the palm of my hand.

Shape: As mentioned, very rufflly. Ruffles on the shoulder which, when you cut it, are reflected on the inside. Makes for a pretty tomato on the plate.

Color: Brick red with green shoulders. The inside has dark red meat and dark green gel, which adds to the visual experience.

The inside: Medium size seeds with thin walls. Gel is juicy but solid.

Texture: The meat is mealy, but to be honest, the walls are so thin, there is very little meat to really ruin the mouth feel of the tomato. The smooth gel is really most of the bite.

Tasting:

Off the Vine Tasting: The initial flavor is strong. Very tangy and deep. It is the gel driving that. The meat is pretty bland next to the gel, but, again, there so little meat, that this is not an issue.

Sliced and Salted Tasting: Salt changes the flavor some by toning down the tang, but it is not by much. It does bring up the meats flavor a bit too, making it taste closer to the gel.

Cooking Thoughts: This would look pretty on a plate, but it is pretty small for a plated tomato. Defiantly good for salads, maybe a caprese salad. Not a saucing tomato as you need the gel to get the flavor.

Growing Notes:
Pretty healthy plant. Some lower leaf loss, but it is hard to tell if that was the plant itself or from raccoon damage.

Will Hanna grow this one again:
Maybe. The flavor is strong and nice. The only thing that is holding this back from a definite yes is not knowing exactly how to serve it regularly. I will have to think on that.

Part of Hanna’s Tomato Tastings 2009

This is the tomato that took my heirloom virginity. Many years ago, when I was but a sparkling, wet new home owner, I planted a vegetable garden. Sure, I had kept container gardens before. Grew an odd tomato here or there, had watched my own mother grow tomatoes in her garden, but now I had a vegetable plot and I was going to plant tomatoes.

I did as many generations did before me, I went to my local nursery and bought a few tomato plants. In my basket were the normal hybrids, Better Boy, Early Girl, Beef, Big Boy; all cute and clustered in the 4 count cell packs. And that was when I noticed the lone Cherokee standing across the way. He was in his own pot, tall and sturdy. A loner if I ever saw one. And I was filled with a desperate need to find out more about him. So I grasped his ½ gallon container and home he came with me.

To say my first taste of this Cherokee was life changing was an understatement. Never had it occurred to that a tomato could taste like anything other than a tomato. I fell in love and it was a love that has brought me to this place.

It was a fleeting summer love, as summer loves tend to be. And oddly, I never grew Cherokee Purple in my garden again… Until this year. I decided that I would re-visit my first heirloom love and see if my inexperience led me to believe it was so great or if the memory was as true then as it seems now.

The description from the company I got it from reads:

This old heirloom variety from Tennessee, rumored to have come from the Cherokees, has a very rich tomato flavor and unique coloring. The medium-sized 10-12 ounce fruits have a rose/purple skin with a brick red interior. With intense tomato taste and just the right level of sweetness, you will be shocked at how special this variety is. Cherokee Purple tomatoes have a thin skin and soft flesh.

The Beauty Pageant:

Size: Baseball size.

Shape: A nice round tomato. It does seem just a smidge prone to cracking.

Color: Dark, dark red on the bottom with dark, dark green shoulders. The interior is the same dark red and the exterior.

The inside: Largish seeds and loose gel. The core is rather thick and the walls, while not thick, are not thin either

Texture: Smooth and soft. Nearly melt in your mouth. The texture stops just shy of being silky, but is not bad at all.

Tasting:

Off the Vine Tasting: Nice, smoky flavor. You can taste the tomato, but there is just more to this. The meat is defiantly weaker in flavor than the gel and sweeter too, but the meat is not bad on its own. The gel is very concentrated and tangy. It bursts in your mouth.

Sliced and Salted Tasting: Salt is no friend to this tomato. It really mutes all the nice flavors in it.

Cooking Thoughts: Again, not a tomato you can sauce with. You lose half the fun if you de-seed it. This is a suburb BLT tomato. There will be no tug of war to contend with than might pull the slice of the tomato out of the sandwich. It will just melt when you bite into it.

Growing Notes:
Healthy plant that is producing nicely. I can see why this tomato ends up in so many newbie heirloom tomato grower’s gardens. Easy to grow with good taste. You can’t beat that for a beginner or a sure fire standard in the garden.

Will Hanna grow this one again:
Most likely. Memory did not betray me on this one. It is a good tomato. Have I had better? Yes (experience does that) – but this is certainly a solid performer.

Part of Hanna’s Tomato Tastings 2009

I am not a white tomato fan. They tend to be bland because they tend to low acid. Great for people with acid reflux issues but not so much for my particular palet.

But, I am hopeful for this one. First, it was recommended by my tomato plant supplier. She knows her tomatoes and she generally makes great suggestions. After all, she found a cherry tomato that I could like and before this, I had never tried a cherry tomato I liked.

And, I have found others who speak highly of it. So, I will leave my white tomato prejudices behind and see if we can’t lift the segregation in my vegetable garden.

The description from the company I got it from reads:

Our fruits were smooth, flattened, oblate beefsteaks and weighing in around 8 oz. They were of the palest yellow….well, almost white….with light pink striping on the outside. Slices were the palest yellow with a pink trim, very pretty. Very unique and very pleasant tasting.

The Beauty Pageant:

Size: About as wide as my palm, and a few inches tall.

Shape: A flatish tomato with a slightly lumpy top.

Color: Very, very pale yellow. It was interesting watching this tomato ripen. Because it is so pale, it was like watching a ball of green water drain the water out.

The inside: There are many, many chambers . It looks like a beefsteak inside. The inner walls are thicker than the outer walls. Medium number of seeds.

Texture: Soft texture but firm give to the meat. Not mealy, but not silky either. I am not really fond of the texture, but it is not really bad either. There is not too much gel and what is there is pretty firm.

Tasting:

Off the Vine Tasting: Very tangy for a white tomato. The gel is very strong on flavor. Not so much a normal tomato flavor, though there is plenty of tomato flavor in it. It is like a tomato with lemon flavor to it to. Like a tomato lemonade. The meat is pretty flavorful as well. Still lemony but weaker and a bit sweeter. But, even on its own, the meat tastes pretty good.

Sliced and Salted Tasting: Salt tones down the tomato flavor and really kicks up the lemon flavor.

Cooking Thoughts: This would make a nice “conversation piece” tomato. Is it the best tomato you could offer company, no. But it is the best white tomato that I have tried. So, because it is interesting looking and not bad tasting, your guests will marvel if they see this on their plate. The lemon flavor would also play well with basil for a caprese salad.

Growing Notes:
The plant is in pretty poor shape. This was a plant that was particularly ravaged by the bandits. They did not do any obvious damage to the plant, but I wonder if them pulling tomatoes off the plant opened up the plant to a virus or disease. I will be lucky to get 1 more tomato off this plant before it is gone.

Will Hanna grow this one again:
Maybe. Not bad but I have had better.  I will keepit in the back of my mind if I ever am looking for an interesting tomato to fill a spot.