America’s Best Tomato Varieties

By Barbara Pleasant
Published on February 1, 2008
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Tomatoes come in a wide variety of colors and shapes.
Tomatoes come in a wide variety of colors and shapes.
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This “Mystery Marinara” (right) created by Rosalind Creasy, renowned gardening and cookbook author, is made with yellow and white heirloom tomatoes.
This “Mystery Marinara” (right) created by Rosalind Creasy, renowned gardening and cookbook author, is made with yellow and white heirloom tomatoes.
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‘Amish Paste’
‘Amish Paste’
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‘Green Zebra’
‘Green Zebra’
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‘Aunt Ruby’s German Green’
‘Aunt Ruby’s German Green’
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'Kellogg’s Breakfast’
'Kellogg’s Breakfast’
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‘Red Brandywine’
‘Red Brandywine’

This lineup of America’s 20 favorite tomatoes will fill your growing season with an array of colors and fabulous flavors.

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 Tomato 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 tomato varieties (most heirloom tomato 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.

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