Tomato Tasting

Our spring garden has reached, if not passed, its summer peak and we are (Mike is) now beginning to think about a fall crop. Many of the veggies have already been harvested and the plants pulled up. We have eating most of the potatos and all of the peas. Our onions have all been pulled. The carrots and beets are still in the ground but don't seem to be getting much larger, which seems to be the case will all the plants that are still in the ground...they seem to have just given up.

The tomato plants, however, are looking glorious! They are totally the divas of the garden right now, it's awesome. Their bright fruits and tall plants showup everything else in the plot. All of them are significantly taller than me and some of the tomatos are so overextended that they are toppling down on eachother. They make the cucumbers and beans look pretty pathetic.


The other day we Mike and I did a taste test. The photo above pictures 6 of our 7 tomato varieties. Here are the results (going clockwise from the top):

Manitoba, hybrid:

• Emily (A-) pretty basic tomato, good slicer
• Mike (A-) sweet and tangy

Sungold, hybrid:

• Emily (A++++) tangy, juicy, full bodies flavor, very summery, most delicous tomato ever
• Mike (C) too tart

Amish Paste, heirloom:

• Emily (A) meaty, well balanced
• Mike (A-) sweet, meaty, good for cooking and slicing

Yellow Pear, heirloom:

• Emily (C-) too sweet, flavorless
• Mike (B+) sweet, mild flavor, very good

Cherokee Purple, heirloom:

• Emily (B+) hearty, earthy, full bodied tomoto, good slicer
• Mike (A-) delicious, hearty, there is some flavor in it that I can't put my damn finger on

Speckeled Roman, heirloom:

• Emily (C-) absolutely beautiful fruit, lacks flavor, skin is crazy thick
• Mike (B) might be good for cooking with, not many seeds, meaty, mild, thick skin

Our Brandywine, heirloom, tomato wasn't ripe yet when we did the testing. If it had though, it might have won for best flavor (but not over the sungold).