On June 1, Westbury Community Garden held its 8th Annual Tomato Tasting.
It seemed that tomatoes ripened earlier this year. Climate change? Though some tomato varieties were already spent for the season, 20 tomatoes were presented for the comparative taste test. About 45 people took part in the tasting and voting.
The winner in the full-size slicer category was JD’s Special C-Tex, a tomato developed by J.D. Brann of Conroe Greenhouses in Conroe, Texas in the 80’s. It was an exclusive to the family’s greenhouses until 2009 when other seed catalogs began to offer it. JD’s is considered a “black” tomato, deep maroon in color with green shoulders. It is large (8 to 14 ounces), solid, and meaty with complex, smokey flavor.
The favorite saladette tomato among the three presented was Juliet. Juliet is a very prolific, red, 2 ounce oval fruit with great flavor. The fruit mature in about 60 days after transplanting and the vines keep producing long into the season. AND they are crack resistant – a great trait for Houston’s deluge rain patterns.
The overwhelming favorite in the cherry tomato category this year, was Sungold, an orange-gold 1-2 oz tomato that is a must-have for many gardeners. Sungold is another top-producing tomato that starts ripening about 65 days after transplanting and will need to be harvested about twice a week to keep up. The flavor is ultra-sweet which makes it great for eating out of hand or adding to salad. The downside – they tend to crack after heavy rain, but the flavor is so outstanding, gardeners forgive this fault.