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thepassionatecook
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Which heirloom tomatoes should I plant?

I want to grow some heirloom tomatoes. I'm looking for a sweet, meaty tomato, best eaten fresh, not overly acidic or prone to cracking. Does anyone have a personal favorite from the list below? Or perhaps suggestions of their own? It would be great if you could provide flavor descriptions.
  • Aker’s West Virginia
    Aunt Ginny’s Purple
    Black Tula
    Costoluto Genovese (featured below)
    Dutchman (featured below)
    Dixie Golden Giant
    Giant Belgium
    Golden Queen
    Old German
    Russian Black
    Watermelon Beefsteak
I love the wrinkles at the top of these tomatoes... so eye-catching! Can anyone identify the orange tomato?

[img]https://farm4.static.flickr.com/3394/3660223587_dd3e02c680.jpg[/img]
Last edited by thepassionatecook on Tue Sep 08, 2009 2:37 pm, edited 5 times in total.

cynthia_h
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It's hard to say, even when provided a list, like you've done.

The flavor even of the same variety/cultivar of a vegetable will change subtly (and sometimes dramatically) depending on the soil it's grown in and precisely how much sun and stress it's subjected to.

I don't think you could go very wrong with any of the ones you've listed; the ones I'm familiar with are all TERRIFIC. :)

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petalfuzz
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Try Pruden's Purple. I had much better results with it versus Marianna's peace--which for me had catfacing and cracking. Both are pink beefsteaks with potato leaves.

I heard that Aunt Ruby's G.Green is really misshapen, and that Green Giant is a more regularly shaped beefsteak. I had very meaty tomatoes with G.Giant, but it just tasted like a tomato to me, nothing too special about it. It is also potato leaved.

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Duh_Vinci
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From your list, I'm growing Black Tula (my personal favorite in terms of taste/flavor), but is is prone to some radial cracking. Though usually does not hurt the fruit in terms of spoiling prematurely...

A note on Giant Belgian - there is nothing giant about them in my garden, possibly a source of seeds? Flavor is incredible to my taste, sweet, almost tropical fruit like. But very few fruits. Trying another source next year...

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D

TZ -OH6
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Aker’s West Virginia - Very good, pretty round red fruit, about 10 oz (If I grew the right thing).

Black Tula - Correct name "Black from Tula" A very good tomato, slight tang/acid but not too much. Will not disappoint.

Costoluto Genovese (featured below) - Cooking improves it...favorite for sauce, not so much for fresh eating.

Giant Belgium - Should be a large fruit, not too acid, sweet tomatoey taste. Some companies sent out mixed/wrong seed tast year


Great White Beefsteak --Huge fruit, not much flavor, very good mixed with "Limmony" for a "white" tomato sauce.

Marianna’s Peace - Great taste, not acid, but produces bulk of fruit late in the season for me. Best grown with an earlier pink so you don't have to wait around.

Mortgage Lifter-- Grown it twice- two sources, not impressed compared to other good pinks. Has a bit of acid.



If you want full flavor and tomatoey flavor stay away from yellows, whites, and bicolors. Green when ripe varieties often have full flavor (good for fresh eating) but it may not be classically tomatoey. A couple of gold varieties (e.g. Kellogs Breakfast, KBX, Aunt Gerties Gold, Earl of Edgecombe) have full tomato flavor but most are not up to the reds/pinks

The best way to avoid cracked fruit is simply to pick the fruits when they are only partially colored. They are too hard to crack at that point and will develop full flavor as they ripen in the house. IMO It's unwise to trade a wonderful variety for an average variety because of the fallacy that a tomato has to stay on the vine until it is ready to eat.

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thepassionatecook
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cynthia_h: Assuming they are grown under the best circumstances, which would be your top pick and why? Also, which of them have you tasted?

petalfuzz: Thank you for your recommendations and explanations. I will keep Pruden’s Purple in mind. Which do you prefer, regular-leaved or potato-leaved, and why? I know the potato-leaved varieties are more protected against disease. What are some other advantages/disadvantages?

TZ-OH6: FYI, the Aker’s is actually large orange tomato. Kind of a bummer about the Costoluto Genovese since that's what I was leaning toward. I don't want a tomato that tastes like those available in the supermarket. I want a sweeter variety with some meatiness to it that can be enjoyed fresh; I heard that yellows are best for this but I don't think color is a definitive indicator. Also, picking early might stave off cracking, but doesn't it affect the flavor and level of vitamins? I understand that they still ripen on the counter, but I read that leaving them on the vine until they have ripened is the wiser thing to do.

I am still welcoming your thoughts since I will be selecting a couple varietals soon for planting. If any tomatoes are better than the ones I have listed, please inform me about them. I have heard good things about Green Zebra as well.

And if anyone could identify the first tomato in my picture, I would appreciate it. It is meaty with a red center and a bright, rippled orange exterior.
Last edited by thepassionatecook on Tue Sep 08, 2009 2:29 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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I strongly urge taking a look at [url=https://www.wildboarfarms.com/catalog_4.html]Wild Boar Farms[/url] selection of tomato seeds. Their tomatoes are served in some of the finest restaurants in the San Francisco Bay Area, including Chez Panisse. I buy their tomatoes at a local farmers market and have to say they are a taste sensation. They have a variety called the Berkeley Tie Dyed that is very good. Just slice it up and eat, doesn't need salt. I also like their Brad's Black Heart, Yellow Boar, and Red Boar tomatoes, [url=https://www.wildboarfarms.com/catalog_3.html]found listed here[/url]. Their site indicates they start selling seeds in November and checkout is through PayPal, which is a way I like to pay online because it's safe and secure.

If you live in the area you can even arrange to receive weekly boxes of toma

Here's what it says on their home page:
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"Wild Boar Farm's Tomatoes are Beautiful and Flavorful. They're Tomatoes You'll Never Forget.

-from "The Office and Staff of Alice Waters at Chez Panisse.

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webmaster wrote:I strongly urge taking a look at [url=https://www.wildboarfarms.com/catalog_4.html]Wild Boar Farms[/url] selection of tomato seeds.
Thank you very much for your recommendation!

Their "Beauty King" looks pretty good! - Mid to late, 75-90 days. Indet. regular leaf. 12-20 oz. fruit. Good to very good production. Large stunning red yellow bi-color, yellow with flashy red stripes (not blotches). Interior is yellow with bright red streaks, very meaty. Very good sweet tomato flavor.

TZ -OH6
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The fruit is cut off from the living sap at the time it starts to ripen (color can first be seen) so the only thing that can get into the fruit after that point is water (the sap and water systems of plants are separate pipes). From a commercial stand point to be sold as "vine-ripened" the fruit must stay on the plant until the "breaker stage" which is when the very bottom tip of the fruit changes from green/white to tan (not even pink yet). Most grocerystore tomatoes are picked before this stage, "mature green" or earlier, and must be gassed to start the ripening process. That is where flavor and vitamins are lost (combined with low storage temperatures and long storage times).

Any difference in flavor from a half-pink picked fruit vs soft red-ripe picked fruit would be due to differences in daily temperature between the two, and would be difficult to sort out from fruit to fruit flavor variations on the same plant caused by weather differences while the fruit were developing. There is also a great deal of flavor difference over the few days between when a fruit is ripe enough to eat and when it is over ripe so much that some varieties like Green zebra are totally different flavors (some people like first ripe GZs while others like late ripe GZs). Believe me, a Black Krim or Brandywine picked with half color and ripened on the kitchen counter may taste slightly different from ones left on the vine but they will still knock your socks off.


I checked various websites, my Akers WV are on type, ...round red 10-16 oz. I didn't get any pounders so I was a little concerned. If you have orange fruits they are mislabeled.

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TZ -OH6 wrote:I checked various websites, my Akers WV are on type, ...round red 10-16 oz. I didn't get any pounders so I was a little concerned. If you have orange fruits they are mislabeled.
Thanks for going into more detail about ripening. That is very useful information. You're right about Aker's being red. When I saw the tomato at the following link, it appeared orange.

But they do state that Aker's WV are usually 1 pounders.

https://www.reimerseeds.com/akers-west-virginia-tomato.aspx

petalfuzz
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thepassionatecook wrote: petalfuzz: Thank you for your recommendations and explanations. I will keep Pruden’s Purple in mind. Which do you prefer, regular-leaved or potato-leaved, and why? I know the potato-leaved varieties are more protected against disease. What are some other advantages/disadvantages?

I want a sweeter variety with some meatiness to it that can be enjoyed fresh; I heard that yellows are best for this but I don't think color is a definitive indicator.
I found the potato leaved plants to be more affected by early blight and sunscald than regular leafed plants. But it didn't deter me enough to avoid growing them. Just check often for affected leaves and remove. Spray with anti-fungicide as a preventative.

As for sweet and meaty: we talked about the orange strawberry tomato [url=https://www.helpfulgardener.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=7345&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=15]here[/url] before. It is an oxheart and had excellent reviews. Don't mind the conversation about baking, the thread gets back on track at the bottom of page 2. Here's a quote:
Trentt wrote:I've got two favorites for taste, both heirloom tomatoes: cuore de toro (bull's heart) and orange strawberry.

Cuore de toro has what (to me) is the quintessential tomato flavor, robust, deep, sweet, and tangy. Problem is, it's not a very good keeper at all and the plants I've grown are prolific producers of very large fruits so when they start coming I go on a tomato diet. I grew orange strawberry tomatoes for the first time last year and my family and I were surprised at the meaty texture and sweet taste of the fruit - very fruity, not a typical tomato taste at all, mild and sweet, almost like a melon. You could have it for dessert.

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thepassionatecook
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petalfuzz wrote:As for sweet and meaty: we talked about the orange-strawberry tomato. Very fruity, not a typical tomato taste at all, mild and sweet, almost like a melon. You could have it for dessert.
I've heard of the Orange-Strawberry, but I thought that was a hybrid, not an heirloom. I might give it a shot anyway because that flavor description sounds appealing to me. Also, the Cuore de Toro reminds me of the Costoluto Genovese, but I think the CdT is a French Heirloom that's better for eating, whereas CG is an Italian Heirloom, which I hear is better in sauce.

Does anyone recognize the orange tomato in the picture of my inital post? I'm struggling trying to find its name.

TZ -OH6
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The colors are off in the photo, underexposed and oversaturated, the Orange tomato is actually a bicolor (based on the internal coloration) and in real life would be more of a dark yellow on the outside. There many different bicolor beefsteaks. Mr Stipey seems to be popular at big box stores around the country. Most are soft/watery in consistency with a sweet, mild, fruity flavor. The best tasting one is probably Lucky Cross/Little lucky, which is not so flat and lumpy as those pictured.

petalfuzz
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I highly recommend Amy Goldman's book, "the heirloom tomato." She profiles hundreds of varieties and includes tons of recipes. It's a great reference book, too. Check and see if you can get it.

I agree with TZ that the picture you provided is over-saturated. I think it should look more like this:
[img]https://farm3.static.flickr.com/2436/3912546918_04850944ac.jpg[/img]

Check out [url=https://www.tomatogrowers.com/index.html]this site[/url] for bi-colored tomatoes. Ones with ruffles could be: Oaxacan Jewel, Pineapple Tomato, Virginia Sweets, etc.

PepperDude
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Indian Stripe and White Potatoleaf were my choices.

[img]https://i211.photobucket.com/albums/bb122/daylilydude/2009%20veggie%20beds/2009slicedtomatoes010.jpg[/img]

[img]https://i211.photobucket.com/albums/bb122/daylilydude/2009%20veggie%20beds/2009slicedtomatoes009.jpg[/img]

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Welcome to the forum, pepperdude. :) Those are meaty looking tomatoes! How did they taste?

PepperDude
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webmaster wrote:Welcome to the forum, pepperdude. :) Those are meaty looking tomatoes! How did they taste?
As you know not everyone's taste buds are the same , but to me the Indian Stripe has a smokey, earthy taste where as the White Potatoleaf has more of a mild sweet fruity taste.

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thepassionatecook
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petalfuzz wrote:Check out [url=https://www.tomatogrowers.com/index.html]this site[/url] for bi-colored tomatoes. Ones with ruffles could be: Oaxacan Jewel, Pineapple Tomato, Virginia Sweets, etc.
Thank you petalfuzz! I might try the Oaxacan Jewel.

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It all depends what kind of tomato you want: cherry, pear, paste/Roma, regular, beefsteak...
black krim and cherokee purple are very tasty varieties, and Mennonite and mortgage lifter are also popular, and a low acid dual-color I is Mr. Stripey, but I have not found a low-acid that have much flavor, and I think if canning, low acid need more salt to preserve them. German Johnson is another old time. Best bet it to search online for companies that have heirloom tomato seeds or plants for sale, and read the description and read the customer comments and see what sounds good to you.



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