Tomatoes of 2015: Types, Tastes, and Pictures

Nice tomatoes, SMC! I see that you have Indigo apple and the other yellow and blue variety. How did you like the taste? Do you have the other tomatoes that you liked?

Drew, I made green salsa from my green Malachite box tomatoes. It is good. This variety is prolific and it usually ripens all in the short time. It is very juicy though so I need to remove extra juice for the sauce.

One user on Tomatoville suggested letting diced tomatoes drain in a strainer for at least 2 hours as the liquid is slow to leave the sliced tomato.
I want to grow Zapotec for the hollow body. Nice and dry for salsa. Some pastes I grew Romeo in particular had huge fruits, but they were light weight. They were very low on liquid/gel.

I made raw salsa a few times this year with my own tomatoes and peppers. I also used more juicy tomatoes, and I did need to drain tomatoes. I used Indian Stripe and Berkeley Tie-Dye. I have to take a photo of a cross section on those. Gorgeous tomatoes!

I have a nice trick to remove juice fast. After dicing tomatoes I put them in the salad spinner. Then spin and remove extra juice 2-3 times. I works really well. I grew several paste varieties and none of them I liked very much for one reason or another. Next year I’ll try a couple of heart tomatoes, they are meaty and tasty. And removing extra juice is no problem with the salad spinner.

I started a few varieties from seed in the spring. I always get more going from seed than I need, just in case. They grew well and I had them on the porch when a bad wind knocked them out of their marked containers and all over the yard. I saved what I could and planted the best looking plants. Turns out most of the ones I ended up planting were Sungold. I love Sungold but 10 Sungold plants is way too many!! Cosmonaut Volkov and Christopher Columbus have also done well this year. Christopher Columbus is a Roma that looks like a beefsteak inside. I tried the Florida Weave method this year and I’ll give it a B-. I did 4 ft between rows and 3 feet between plants. Neither was enough. Also, the twine loosened over the course of the summer, but no plants fell down. This is the second year in a row that Japanese Black Trifele has not been very good for me. My wife has canned about 40 quarts of sauce so far.

I sure did. My wife is from Cinque Terre and uses an old family recipe.

It’s okay, not as bad as its reputation. I mostly used them for sandwiches and tomato mozzarella salads. From this year’s varieties the three I enjoyed enough to grow again are Green Zebra, Wapsipinicon Peach, and Orange Whopper. The worst was Speckled Roman as the plants had a lot of rot and went downhill quickly.

Tried that last year on Big Beef. I kept falling over the twine although helped keep the tomatoes from rotting so bad. A huge amount of work driving posts and struggling with plants. We did 4’ rows and 4 plants in each weave. I would try it again but increase the row spacing to 6’ and only have 2 plants in each weave, I think the increase in productivity could greatly reduce the plants you would need to grow. Great post.

You can’t just leave that here and not post the recipe.

My tomatoes are just starting to really come in and I don’t think that I’m the only one intrigued to try it.

That is a beautiful tomato! Did you make a BLT with it??

I love Druzba, it always did well for me. I have not grown it in a few years because I had so many others too try. It will return again someday though.

Ginny

Very nice garden. Looks like you had a good haul and a nice diversity of tomatoes! :smile:

Ginny

I picked a tomato yesterday that I swear tasted like ketchup. I realize that sounds gross, but it was pretty good, and this was the first time I’ve been able to taste a clear connection between the condiment and the fruit. I think it was just a standard Amish paste tomato.

No, it’s not gross, Tim, I get what you’re saying! I grew an Amish paste tomato when I lived in Indiana. My youngest daughter would pluck them right off the vine and eat them like apples.

Carol Chyko’s Big Paste. The large red fruit is a combination of a beefsteak and flattened heart. Some fruit have a blocky shape. Very meaty with small seed cavities. Has a nice balance of sweet/tart. Not a real paste, but still meaty enough to make a great sauce tomato and slicer.

Ginny

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Greenbush Italian… Pink Oxheart with excellent flavor and high yield. Fruit vary in size from medium to large. Midseason, regular leaf.

Ginny

Greenbush Italian

Beefsteak tomatoes from American Seed Company… You know that pack of seeds you can buy from the big box store for 15 cents? Yes, each plant is loaded with perfect, medium, round red tomatoes. The taste is good. The fruit is firm. Not bad for a 15 cent packet.

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Barefoot! This is one of my all-time favorite tomatoes. The plain red is just as tasty as the pink variety. Great photo too. Didn’t plant them this year, but will have seeds for next year. ‘Cuore di Bui’. The best! Your tomatoes are great!

MrsG, is it also known as Couer De Bouer, and Cuore Di Toro? I heard it is a really good Italian tomato. Good for fresh eating and canning. I am all for great canning tomatoes.

Thank you

Ginny

I had no idea GBI had a red variety… I love this tomato and plan on growing it next season also. I made a wonderful sauce/paste with the tomatoes I had.

Ginny

I was discussing your ‘pink oxheart’, that is pink’ Cuore di Bue’.