America’s Favorite Tomatoes
We talked with experts across the country to choose the 20 best-tasting varieties.
February/March 2008
By Barbara Pleasant
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Tomatoes come in a wide variety of colors and shapes.
DAVID CAVAGNARO
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This lineup of America’s 20 favorite tomatoes will fill your growing season with an array of colors and fabulous flavors.
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How We Picked Winners
We tapped into the minds of all kinds of experts to help narrow the field. First, we invited members of the Seed Savers Exchange who have a special passion for tomatoes to nominate their favorite varieties. We also consulted people like Carolyn Male of Salem, N.Y., who has personally grown and tasted more than 2,000 varieties, and Robbins Hail, who tends 600 tomato varieties each season at Bear Creek Farms in Osceola, Mo.
After collating variety recommendations from Maine to California, we compared our emerging list of names with those that won top ratings in tomato taste tests around the country. Then we compared them with all the field trial performance data we could find, and checked the online variety ratings hosted by Cornell University and Dave’s Garden.
Hybrid vs. Open-pollinated Varieties
Before we reveal our top 20 picks, a few words on the hybrid versus heirloom variety debate. It’s a fact that hybrids are generally more productive and disease-resistant than open-pollinated varieties (most heirloom varieties are open-pollinated). But open-pollinated tomatoes generally offer the richest flavors, plus you can save their seeds to plant in future seasons. Hybrid tomato breeding focuses on the needs of commercial producers who favor tomatoes that resist diseases and ship well, often allowing flavor to take a back seat.
For home gardeners who want top flavor, open-pollinated varieties often are your best choice. Of hybrids, only ‘Sungold’ consistently ranks with revered heirloom varieties in lists of taste-test winners.
Since many open-pollinated varieties tend to take their time ripening, they grow best in climates where summers are long enough to allow them to fully mature. Low productivity or disease susceptibility also can be issues. But when they are properly grown in well prepared soil, the open-pollinated varieties profiled here stand strong long enough to produce good crops of such richly flavored fruits that you will want to eat every last one. Additionally, open-pollinated varieties with broad, potatolike leaves (such as ‘Brandywine’) often put up a good fight when challenged by diseases.
Kicking Off The Season
Everyone wants homegrown tomatoes as soon as they can get them, so a great patch starts with varieties that mature early — in 65 days or less after transplanting. Since these early varieties will be eaten fresh, we suggest growing two — one orange and one red. ‘Sungold’ (57 days) is a shoo-in for the orange slot because of its outstanding sweet, fruity flavor and its ability to bear heavy crops over a long growing season. Mother Earth News Editor in Chief Cheryl Long reports that she has shared ‘Sungold’ with several people who claimed not to even like fresh tomatoes, and they each exclaimed, “This variety is delicious!”
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