Tomato Taste Test

After a lot of tending, planting, pruning, weeding, watering, waiting… We are officially in tomato harvest season! We’ve got the usual Big Beef slicing tomatoes, a classic, as well as our outdoor Sungolds (my personal favorite summer snack) starting to produce fruit. And, in all their colorful glory, we’ve got a wide variety of heirloom tomatoes this season. Walking through the greenhouse, you’ll see them hanging heavy on the vine, using all their cues to tell you when they’re ripe & ready. I noticed while harvesting the tomatoes that just the appearance and smell of each variety was distinct – you can *almost* taste the tomato just by experiencing it with your hands, nose and eyes… Almost!

We knew we needed to do a taste test. So, last Friday, some of the crew stayed on the farm after a long day of harvesting to do our official blind taste test of the heirlooms.

We cut up each variety and prepared for the tasting! Marnero, Genuwine, Margold, Marvori, Hot Streak, Dark Star, Gin Fiz, Captain Lucky, and BeOrange. All in a sweet, colorful little circle on the platter. 

A few volunteered to be the blind taste testers. We handed them their bites and awaited the reviews! Turns out you can taste color, and as expected, there was a wide range of feedback for each tomato. Everyone has their preferences. For me, I prefer the sweeter orange/yellow tomatoes. Some prefer the darker, more acidic and earthy varieties. But, drumroll please, as we all agreed on the overall favorite…Captain Lucky!!

We were all surprised, as this tomato is ripe when it’s a greenish color that might make one think it’s under ripe or just not quite right. Oh, were we wrong! To me, Captain Lucky is the perfect tomato. A combination of all the goodness a tomato can bring! It was a close call, so many delicious tomatoes. We’ve been enjoying all the different ways one can consume a tomato. Hope you do the same!

~Natalie