The best of the best tomatoes

[Lazy Gardener]

Going through my stash of seeds, it's no surprise to me that I have amassed quite a collection of tomato seeds. I've had luck with sprouting 9 year old seeds. So... this year, I'm going to grow some of my usual favorites, and try a few new ones, or do repeat trials of some.

I'm reading a lot about how the San Marzano paste is supposed to be THE BEST paste tomato. Whether it's b/c of the variety, or b/c of the Italian soil that the imported San Marzano's are grown in is a matter of speculation.

Which led me to this article. Interesting outcome. To see the BEST in a blind taste test, scroll to the last entry!

https://www.epicurious.com/expert-advice/best-canned-tomatoes-san-marzano-italian-taste-test-article

Now: the purpose of this thread. Let's hear it from you all. WHAT are your favorite tomatoes? There's no one best, that's for sure, and most gardens will have a combination of paste, sandwich or slicing, and cherry tomatoes. Be sure to include your assessment of how easy your faves are to grow, how disease resistant, and what type. Also, notation re: if your varieties are hybrid (F1) or OP would be helpful. If you are trying a new variety, be sure to come back in the fall to follow up!

These are the contenders for this season in the LG gardens:

Sun Gold (cherry) (F1)I can't have a happy garden without these little candy nuggets. They rarely make it into the house. I love to graze on them. I also toss a handful onto the grill when ever I'm grilling.

Amish paste (OP): Nice meaty, good size, thus easy to fill the canner with them. Have grown these for years.

Rutgers (OP): slicing tomato. Big beefy, good taste. Has been in my garden for years.

no name plum tomato (OP): often volunteers. prolific producer. May outperform AP in # per plant, but AP is easier to process.

Other varieties I'll be putting in seedling trays this season:

Grandma Mary's paste (OP), Opalka Paste (OP), Anna's Russian Paste (OP), San Marzano Plum (OP).

Slicers: Marglobe (OP), Yellow Jubilee (OP), Mountain Magic (F1) has great disease resistance.

Other varieties I've grown with good results, but will not plant this year: Cosmonaut Volkov: good early slicer. Jet Star: Not a favorite for me. Oregon Spring: EARLY. Prudens Purple: disease resistant. Juliet: Blight tolerant.

 

[Beekissed]

Great thread, LG!!

I have a few favorites we've planted down through the years and we still use them. Some we've used in the past and really like but tend to plant mostly the favorites.

Pink Brandywine is my all time favorite of all tomatoes~on nearly every list of top favorites for flavor, the Brandywine will always make the list. It's a beefsteak variety that yields well and the tomatoes are always wonderfully flavored. Great for slicing, canning, etc. I also love the yellow and red Brandywine....Mom particularly loves the yellow due to the extraordinary sweetness and low acidity. Some HUGE tomatoes, some medium large, but always a good producer, disease resistant and produced far up into the fall.

Yellow Stripey~another beefsteak variety we love with similar traits to the Brandywine but more like the yellow variety, very sweet, large and beautiful. Good yields, some giant fruits, some medium but still producing far up into fall.

German Giants~ another beefsteak variety that we love. Love the flavor, love the yield, love the disease resistance. Some really big fruits, some medium, all lovely for slicing, canning, etc.

Why so many beefsteak varieties, you may wonder? Because we love eating tomatoes as a meal..yes, just a big ol' tomato all by its lonesome, a little salt and pepper, a slice of sweet onion and we are set. We love how they are more meat than seed and we love their beauty, flavor and yield.

For canning up a LOT of tomatoes, as we used to when living off grid and kids still at home and living almost entirely out of the cellar, we used to have varieties like Better Boy, Big Boy, Mortgage Lifter, Jetstar, Early Girl, etc. All good growers and producers with a decent flavor and high yields.

Paste...we've always used Roma and never really tried anything else as they always gave us what we needed in that area. We don't make many sauces or pastes in our canning but this year I may can some of them whole and use them as a stewed tomato item.

Cherry, we normally like Sweet One Hundreds or Sweet Millions and they live up their name....tons of fruit, sweet as can be. We normally have way more than we can give away or use, even if we only plant one or two of these.

I've tried the Pruden's Purple here and it got blight, plus I didn't really enjoy the flavor, so won't be doing it again. I've tried other of the more popular heirloom varieties as well and they just never did well here...the beefsteak heirlooms, on the other hand, do very well in these parts, so we keep coming back to those.

Tried a New Yorker that a friend sent me last year and it did the most poorly of any tomato I've ever planted, so must do well there but not really here in WV.

 

[Lazy Gardener]

Agreed with you, Bee. Tomato success seems to be a regional thing. What works for you with your long hot season might be a total bust for me. And the tomatoes I choose again and again b/c they are among the varieties that WILL perform in my short cold season... you probably wouldn't give them the time of day, simply b/c they are not as flavorful as a long season tomato.

 

[Lazy Gardener]

For canning up a LOT of tomatoes, as we used to when living off grid and kids still at home and living almost entirely out of the cellar, we used to have varieties like Better Boy, Big Boy, Mortgage Lifter, Jetstar, Early Girl, etc. All good growers and producers with a decent flavor and high yields.

So, If I'm hearing you correctly, you can these varieties? How do you prep them? I assume they have much more liquid than the pastes. Do you do anything to remove the "whey" before canning? Or do you simply toss them into the jar, and HWB them????

 

[Beekissed]

So, If I'm hearing you correctly, you can these varieties? How do you prep them? I assume they have much more liquid than the pastes. Do you do anything to remove the "whey" before canning? Or do you simply toss them into the jar, and HWB them????

Yes, much more liquid and we like the liquid in our canned tomatoes...generally we use them in soups, chilis, eat them straight from the jar or actually use them as a soup if desired.

Traditionally we'd scald the skins, peel those and then cut them up for canning. No removal of seeds or whatnot.

Nowadays I use them more for salsa, tomato soup, juice, etc. In those ways I rarely scald the skins...in salsa I just pulse the whole tomato in the Ninja, along with other ingredients and steam can the salsa. If I want to try and remove more of the "whey" of the tomato to make a thicker salsa, I can freeze them whole and the skins just slip off when thawed...and the, I call it serum, is left in the bowl...you get to see just how much water is in tomatoes when you do that.

In soup, that's another cut them up, pulse them in the Ninja with other ingredients and cook them down sort of thing, then strain out the seeds and other things that are not desired.

A lot of nutrition lies in those skins and I'm reluctant to let even that amount go. When necessary, I freeze the skins off, but mostly I incorporate it into whatever I'm making...the Ninja makes everything smooth!

I've tried to use the Roma's for salsa and I found it was just as thin as using regular tomatoes and they lack the good, sweet flavor of the beefsteak varieties. Plus they have a lower overall yield, pound for pound.

 

[Lazy Gardener]

Sounds like I'll be experimenting with some of my slicing tomatoes. I think the skin makes the finished product a bit more bitter. Even though I'm tossing a lot of nutrition with the skins, and doing more work, I prefer to do so. However, I convert the skins to eggs!

 

[Lazy Gardener]

Bee, I'll have to try a batch of salsa, skin on, pulsed. It couldn't possibly get any easier than that!

 

[Beekissed]

Bee, I'll have to try a batch of salsa, skin on, pulsed. It couldn't possibly get any easier than that!

It's great for fresh salsa also....makes a more smooth texture for those who don't like chunky salsa. I love chunky salsa, especially when it's fresh, but my boys don't like the chunks.

You can just pulse the blender for a more chunky consistency. Sure puts one into a fresh salsa real quick and in a hurry. I use the smaller container on my ninja for that purpose but the larger for canning large batches.

These beefsteak don't tend to have thick skins like the hybrid, smaller tomatoes, so the skin is not tough or bitter and is easily incorporated into the tomatoes.

 

[Marianne]

Some varieties do better than others, then the next year it's different. But the only one that has consistently performed for us is Celebrity. Some years they are smaller, but there's always a lot of them.
So, now that's pretty much what I plant every year. And I always pay more for one big plant. Our weather is so wonky. One year that plant was the only one giving us tomatoes. I do have grape tomato volunteers every year. That's pretty nice! I have no clue what variety it was. I bet I put in the original plant 8 years ago.

 

[Marianne]

A gal in our area takes the pulp, seeds and skins from her tomato processing and puts them in her dehydrator. She showed me these small 'chips'. From those chips, she buzzes them to make tomato powder that's used in soups, spaghetti sauce, where ever.
And here I thought I didn't throw anything away.