Sunday, August 12, 2007

heirloom tomato taste test

heirloom tomatoes
halves dressed
Since my tomatoes are late this year, I bought five different varieties of heirloom tomatoes at the Farmer's Market. My thought was to taste test and pick the best tomatoes for my garden next year. The unsliced tomatoes varieties are (clockwise form top left): Brandywine, Orange Blossom (not an heirloom), Prudence Purple, Flame and Black Prince. I thought this would be easier, but it turned out to be impossible to pick the best! I think maybe the nicest thing is the way all of the different varieties look (and taste) together. (Our order of preference was probably: Black Prince, Orange Blossom, Brandywine, Prudence Purple, and then Flame - but all were delicious.)

Solanum lycopersicum

11 comments:

Unknown said...

Those all look delicious... especially all together, dressed up with basil and mozzarella... but maybe not quite so good as the ones from your garden that you posted within the past couple of weeks. These are some serious tomato pinups you're showing here! :)

Anonymous said...

I did essentially the same thing this week! Stay tuned for more about it on my blog shortly...

kathy said...

Great Genie - I'm looking forward to that! (PS. I like your self-portraits. Very cool.)

A Larrapin Garden said...

Delicious photos! (Larrapin!)

At my house, this year "Cherokee Purple" has won the taste test, hands down. It's perfect on a BLT -- for me the ultimate test!

Leigh from
A Larrapin Garden
www.larrapin.blogspot.com

Wild Mood Swings said...

this looks lush , a festival of colour.

Anonymous said...

try feta instead of mozzarella and ken's italian unless you make a better dressing yourself. mmm, can't wait until august

Anonymous said...

I'm looking for a good place to buy hierloom tomatoe plants close to Boston?

Dazy said...

I got beautifully-packed box of heirloom tomatoes from a supplier in New Jersey. It was what I needed. Unpacking heirloom tomato varieties developed in far-flung parts of the world offers a certain orientation.

Anonymous said...

Just read your article, I am growing 15 different organic heirlooms varieties this year. Purchased my seeds from the Victory seed company in Oregon, really nice people to deal with. Anyway I noticed your black prince tomato in your picture during a google search, I have three similar varieties, a Cherokee Purple, a Cherokee Chocolate and an Indian Stripe. I must say the Cherokee Purple is one of the BEST tasting tomato's that I have come across in a while. A couple of others that have impressed so far are the Marmande (red tomato) and a Kellogg's Breakfast (orange tomato). Happy tomato season.

Anonymous said...

Hello- planning a tomato festival at my house in a couple of weeks to taste test all the varieties my friends and I are growing. Technical questions: how to display and serve them? Does it matter what else people are eating and drinking? Better to give people a scorecard of sorts to mark on, or have some kind of tally sheets with the actual tomatoes?
Thanks- Beth in Denver

kathy said...

A tomato tasting party is a great idea! How about trying the ideas on line about chocolate tasting parties:
chocolate tasting party

I think it does matter what you serve with it. Not dessert obviously. And not a giant meal that will overshadow the tomatoes. Other than that, just about everything goes with tomatoes!

Have fun.