In this episode, we will be reviewing organically grown heirloom tomatoes. 7 are from my own garden, and the other 6 are from E.R. and Son Farm in Monroe Township in northern NJ.
Episode 02 – Heirloom Tomatoes.m4a
All Tomatoes with Labels
oops! the bowl labeled black krim all the way in the back is the chocolate cherry.
In my research for this podcast, I came across a bunch of websites on tomato tasting parties. I never knew how popular this concept was. The most remarkable of these websites is at http://mariseeds.com/seedcatalog/party.html it’s quite impressive, and puts our wimpy 13 variety taste test to shame.
The following lists are the order in which we tasted them. The winners were chocolate cherry with wapsipinicon peach following closely behind. (the varieties that I had grown in my own garden are italicized, if you are curious.)
1: Green Zebra – excellent, not acidic, firm, solid, “meaty in a tomato way”, sour, tart
2: Illinois Beauty – not a strong flavor, fresh, watery, mild, bland
3: Riesentraube cherry tomato – tough skin, bitter, sour, a lot of seeds
4: Sweet Chelsea, don’t like it, too vegetable-y
5: Tigerella – mealy, not a lot of flavor, would be good with a little salt
6: Chocolate Cherry Tomato – good flavor, tough skin, but not too thick, exquisite, sweet, like candy, best tomato i’ve ever had
7: Black Nyagous – almost as good as the chocolate cherry, not quite as sweet, watery, light flavor
8: Japanese Black Trifele – doesn’t taste tomatoey, tough skin, tastes like a bell pepper, indifferent
9: Dr. Wyche’s Yellow – subtle flavor, nice aftertaste, firmness was good
10: Georgia Streak – “i would eat a salad with THAT tomato” slight corn flavor, watery,
11: Kellogg’s Breakfast – very crunchy, like eating water, not much flavor (gigantic)
12: Cream Sausage – terrible. mealy, too firm, tart, really bad taste, musty, astringent. (the worst)
13: Wapsipinicon Peach – really good, the best, lots of flavor, mild, a lot going on, sweet to sour.
this episode’s outro music is Red Ripe Tomatoes by Jack Kelly & his south Memphis jug band recorded in 1933. It’s totally not a vegan song, just substitute T-bone with seitan and fishing with swimming if you wish. On that note, if you are a musician and would like to have some of your songs featured on the podcast, please send an e-mail to music @ veganreview.info. let us know how long you’ve been a vegetarian and maybe include what your favorite foods are while you’re at it. until then, we’re going to stick with music that’s in the public domain to keep it legal and such.
Stay tuned for the next episode where we will be pitting generic and natural/organic brands of OREO-esque sandwich cookies against the classic. You MAY be surprised by the outcome. I know I was.
Tomatoes, fresh off the vine, still warm from the sun, are absolutely wonderful. Problem is, most of the ones we buy in the store were picked green two weeks ago, shipped hundreds or thousands of miles, and maybe frozen and thawed en route. Not exactly ideal for taste and texture experience, but that’s not at all what the store cares about! Most tomatoes we buy in the grocery store now have been genetically engineered not for flavor, but rather to minimize costs to the grower, to withstand transportation, and to remain firm and red as long as possible. The tomato just has to look good enough so that the consumer buys it… it doesn’t have to actually taste good. Pathetic, but that’s what most consumers now expect from almost all fruit and veg at the grocery store.
Heirloom tomatoes were selectively bred – not genetically engineered – in order to highlight certain qualities. Not all of them were meant to be eaten plain; some were bred for their ideal quality in specific applications, such as when canning, when pickling, when used in stews, when making sauce, when making dishes such as gazpachos and chutneys, etc etc. It would be interesting to go back and do the same test of heirloom tomatoes but rather than just tasting each plain, make a sauce with each, or make salsa with each. The results might be very different!
very good point. i didn’t think of that.
if only we had done the taste test 2 weeks prior, we would have had much better quality tomatoes to taste (at least the ones from my garden.) i don’t remember the cream sausage tasting as bad as it did on tasting day. dr. wyche’s also had a more distinct taste before tasting day. :-(
i had made a sauce with all the tomatoes featured here 2 weeks prior: http://www.flickr.com/photos/supercarrot/2767309295/ and it was seriously the best sauce i had ever tasted. mmmmmm.
Thanks for sharing your Tomato Tasting Results. I, too, love Chocolate Cherry and will grow the variety again next year. What’s great about CC is that it’s good in different stages of ripeness and size is more substantial compared to most cherry-type tomatoes. I almost did not grow Japanese Black Trifele because of the mixed reviews. I’m glad I did because here in my growing conditions, it has excellent flavor up to par with the well-regarded Black Krim. I’m growing two (2) plants and each has over 60 fruits. Was/Is yours a heavy-producer as well? Seems CC is winner coast to coast! It’s sweet yet complex!
If you want to see a gorgeous catalogue of heirloom vegetable seeds try Bakers Creek at http://rareseeds.com/
( I don’t work for them)