My different tomato varieties are starting to come through so got to try 5 different ones today. I've been picking Fantasio (blight tolerant) for a few weeks now but a little bit tart I think. Chadwick Cherry and Harzfeuer both lovely and sweet and juicy. Roma, bit disappointing, very meaty, few seeds but quite bland. Does the flavour get better with cooking? Costoluto Genovese, like Roma but with better taste. 23 more to go!
we've grown black krim for the first time this year..Ray's the tomato fanatic, he says it's the sweetest one he's tasted..difficult to know when it's ripe, though..I like tigerella and golden sunrise ;D
grew sundance too, bit bland, may be good for cooking :)
This is my first year with a crop of tomatoes. And different varieties, as well.
I only lost Gardeners Delight to blight.
As for taste:
I don't like Black Prince: They are soft and squishy. And the brownish color doesn't help either.
Poire Jaune (small yellow pearshape tomatoes) are prolific, but don't have much of a taste. Looks good in salades though.
Ildi is very nice: sweet and juicy. Very good for picking and eating immediately. And great to put on puff pastry with a sprig of thyme, some seasalt and black pepper and a drizzle of olive oil, bake in the oven until pastry is goldenbrown.
Tigrella is an average tasting tomato, but I like the stripes.
Montserrat is a fleshy tomato with good taste. Not too 'dry'.
Oh no! More varieties to try ;D
Thanks for the suggestions, sound like some good ones in there.
Thanks too for the recipe garjan. I'd been about to look up one for a tomato tart but that one will do nicely!
How does one describe taste without falling into "wine talk"?
This one was `heady and complex on the palette`
This one was young and fresh-to be eaten soon
the word is taste-hence my campaign about MM and all tasteless varieties
Anyone growing Marmande? Never grown them before but on the growing list for next season.
No, buit it's also on the list!
Marmande, MMMmmmmmmmmmm Lovely taste!!!!
I have Roma, Orange Banana, Golden Sunrise, Di Bue and a couple of others.
Orange Banana and Roma are in one bed and have started getting blite, but i have been trimming it off and so far only lost a couple of tomatoes.
The others are covered in blite and i'm pulling them up today :-[
Hopefuly i will get to taste some and let you know.
Neil
i'm growing gardener's delight - blight started but I think I've got rid of it for now. The taste of the few which have ripened so far is ok not great. But I have to pick them orange and ripen indoors, because the snails LOVE these and always get to the ripe ones first!
So in the snail taste test - gardener's delight win!
I've had two ripe 'carbon' beefsteak and they were delicious. Human taste test - carbon beats GD (and no signs of blight)
I've had rubbish tomatoes this year, the one that did get blight the kids hit with a football :'(
Amongst others I have cour di beouf, Marmande, orange Banana et al all ripening up in the greenhouse... :)
I don't think much at all of Roma raw, but I love them fried, much the best I've tried. I get a lot of blossom end rot with them though, which plum tomato could I grow instead that cooks as tastily?
:) Aunty Madge is lovely cooked, it's a cherry plum tomato.
I'm picking, Gardeners Delight, Cherokee Purple, Black Krim, Red Tumbling Tom,Alicante and Brown Berry at the moment,
Brown Berry is new for me and I will grow it again, it's a taste sensation ;D/ shades x
IF you can get the seeds I would suggest you try Santiam :D
It is a beautiful tasty cooking tomato, although you can use it for slicing if you want ... very few seeds ... the flesh is really juicy and rich to taste ;D
... the other PLUS is that it is an early variety and will escape the blight season 8) 8) 8)
I've tried a few new ones this year and so far the Tumbling Tomato Yellow (gold) is coming up trumps - ripened 1st and very tasty :D
Quote from: angle shades on August 15, 2009, 22:40:56
:) Aunty Madge is lovely cooked, it's a cherry plum tomato.
I'm picking, Gardeners Delight, Cherokee Purple, Black Krim, Red Tumbling Tom,Alicante and Brown Berry at the moment,
Brown Berry is new for me and I will grow it again, it's a taste sensation ;D/ shades x
How do you compare Black Krim with Brown Berry and Cherokee Purple??
We grew a Prudens Purple and Black Krim and liked the latter the best.
Another Russian tom we grew is "Anna" Russian which is huge and meatier but not as interesting flavor as Black Krim.
Tigerella is constantly productive so we'll grow it again though again, the flavor isn't as complexly interesting but has less waste than Black Krim which has the green shoulders that never seem to ripen.
We'll also grow Brandwine again- a HUGE tom but late to ripen.
Will still grow Polfast due to their very early production but they completely die by end of July or early August and not as tasty as Black Krim. In case you didn't guess, though, I LOVE Black Krim's taste.
Have been a bit disappointed with the taste of my Red and Yellow Balconi (tumblers) - better than Gartenperle I think, but not a patch on other cherries like Sungold (which is a star performer in my eyes), so I'm still looking for a great tumbler. Nectar is a good red cherry with a more 'classic' taste.
Rosada, a plum cherry, (replacement for Santa) is excellent and less 'pasty' than Santa . Ravello, another small plum, have been good and taste not dissimilar. Olivade a larger plum (I have seeds from two sources and the size seems to depend on where you buy the seed from!) is a good cropper and great for cooking.
Sungella - bigger sister of Sungold - is a good cropper but good tasting rather than spectacular.
Pink Brandywine is great tasting as is Black Trifele.
The tomatoes mentioned so far in this thread have tended to the non-standard types. I seem to have the most difficulty finding a conventional round medium size variety to become a 'tried and trusted.' At present I'm using Shirley which I like, but feel there should be something better out there.
Black Russian has a superb flavour. (But - see other tomato thread - prone to blight.)
Roma needs wall-to-wall hot & sunny to do anything and to taste of anything. Good for purees.
Both Marmande & Costoluto are brilliant. And this year seems to suit them, especially Marmande.
For mini-tomatoes, my vote goes to Gardener's Delight, Sungold & Ildi.
Standard size & shape? Shirley is the obvious one, but it's not the tastiest. Bloody Butcher? (Also very early.) Or Harbinger?
Will have another think and see if I can come up with any others. (I also grow quite a few heritage varieties.)
The tomatoes mentioned so far in this thread have tended to the non-standard types. I seem to have the most difficulty finding a conventional round medium size variety to become a 'tried and trusted.'
Hi Barnowl-try `St Pierre` much much better that Shirley which is really a money maker with posh clothes ;D
Lots of great suggestions - keep 'em coming!
I got another 2 ripe varieties today, Red Cherry which I thought was nice until I tried Black Cherry which was fantastic. Visually it's a bit odd though eating black tomatoes, they look like they have blight!
Balconi yellow are lovely.
Quote from: cleo on August 18, 2009, 16:47:59
The tomatoes mentioned so far in this thread have tended to the non-standard types. I seem to have the most difficulty finding a conventional round medium size variety to become a 'tried and trusted.'
Hi Barnowl-try `St Pierre` much much better that Shirley which is really a money maker with posh clothes ;D
I grew Moneymaker in 2005. My notes say the taste was just ok but the texture was "Woolly/Sappy" and made a note not to grow them again :)
I'll put St Pierre on the list. Has anyone tried Carmello?
Do we not seem to get tempted by exotic names, rather than plain English ones like Shirley, Harbinger, Oxheart, John Hawkins?
My favourites this year are black cherry and Japanese Black Trifele.
The JBT is delightful, as long as you don't eat it fully ripe, when it is mushy and bland.
Black Cherry is one of my all time favourites.
Green Moldovan is lovely too, but not overripe.
Quote from: tim on August 19, 2009, 17:05:00
Do we not seem to get tempted by exotic names, rather than plain English ones like Shirley, Harbinger, Oxheart, John Hawkins?
Think there is a lot of truth in that, Tim. Tell you I'll make a note to try Harbinger next year and drop one of the foreign ones further down the shortlist - the binger bit sounds particularly appropriate ;)