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.

 

[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.

 

[BarredBuff]

Watching this thread intently

I will say this in regards to transplanting or direct sowing:

I am in Appalachia, and have volunteer tomato plants that do well and germinate when the weather warms up. No problem with them. The whole point of starting seeds is to extend the growing season. Indeterminate tomatoes will usually produce until the weather turns cold and a hard frost comes. This is provided you don't have any late blights or fungal problems.

My favorite varieties to grow are many. I currently have 24(?) sown in the greenhouse. I particularly love Cherokee Purple to eat, and Amish Paste to can tomato sauce, pizza sauce, spaghetti sauce, and salsa with. For a yellow tomato, I love Pineapple tomatoes. One of my favorites to eat! In years past, I have harvested many large ones out of these varieties.

 

[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.

 

[sumi]

@Beekissed I'm drooling over those pics of yours now! They look and sound soooo good. Yes, I love tomatoes lol

I have no clue what variety(ies) we get here, but it's not much... My plants took forever to get going last year and then sat on their fruit for so long, it ended up going off instead of ripening I'm thinking now I need to start some pumpkin and tomato seeds indoors and see how they do. Our weather is still erratic, so I'm weary of direct sewing. And I haven't done a thing to prep the beds yet.

If you have surplus cherry tomatoes sun dry them. In hot, dry weather they dry out in 1-2 days. I used to chop them up and add them with some herbs to the dough when I baked bread. Makes an amazing loaf, full of goodness. Roll the bread dough out to about an inch thick, sprinkle over a generous amount of sun-dried tomatoes and chopped herbs, then roll up the dough before placing it in a pan for baking.

 

[Beekissed]

Sumi, in these parts we always have to start our tomatoes and peppers inside, weeks in advance of planting. Maybe down south they can direct sow them but here we always start inside. If you have a shortened grow season, it would definitely be best to do so.

Those pics have me drooling also....can't WAIT to slice into a big ol' Brandywine, salt it lightly, pepper it and eat it as a meal. Warm from the garden, full of energy from the soil and sun.

 

[Lazy Gardener]

Sumi, I'd not even consider direct sowing tomatoes or peppers, even if I lived in the deep south... Too many hungry bugs. Though, giving that black and white statement a second thought... I will confess that SOMETIMES, self sowed tomatoes perform fairly well. You might do a bit of a google search on Winter Sowing. This would be perfect for you.

 

[Lazy Gardener]

Last season, I had a couple incredible small paste tomatoes sprout where I'd dumped some pulp from processing the year before. I did not stake or cage them, just let them sprawl, and they produced an incredible crop.

 

[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.

 

[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.