I've mentioned before that I'm not usually keen on yellow tomatoes. I suppose it's a deep-seated prejudice, but to me a tomato is red, and I regard different coloured ones with suspicion! Yes, I know this is silly, but there you go... Most of the tomatoes I am growing this year bear red fruit, of course. For instance, the tally of (red) Maskotka and Montello has now exceeded 14kgs (from 8 plants). However, I want to show off a few different-coloured ones today.
This is the first. It is "Tango", which has orange-coloured mini plum fruits. It's probably just a false perception, but I think they do actually taste a bit orangey.
Then we have "Bumblebee Sunrise". The first few I picked were mostly yellow, with few of the red stripes, but the latest lot are much stripier. They remind me of the famous variety "Tigerella", but with the colours reversed. They look very striking in a mixed salad!
I got my granddaughters to test a couple of these on Friday, and they reckoned they were sour. Maybe this is a variety that needs to be eaten very ripe?
This one is the first ripe fruit of "Dwarf Beauty King", again a very beautiful red-and-yellow variety.
The "Dwarf" part of this variety's name refers to the height of the plant, not the size of the fruit, which are actually quite big. This specimen weighed 121 grams.
I've shown off this one in a previous post. It is "Dwarf Barossa Fest", a plain yellow one, but surprisingly tasty.
These dusky beauties are "Cherokee Chocolate", a close relative of the more well-known "Cherokee Purple".
The Cherokee varieties all seem to suffer a lot from deep cracks that radiate out from the stems. This may spoil their good looks somewhat, but it doesn't affect the flavour, or indeed the internal texture. These are lovely tasty tomatoes, and I think the deep colour gives them a certain richness - be it real or imagined. The fruits of this variety generally reach 350 or 400 grams, sometimes bigger. The two in my photo were 473g and 364g.
Despite all the above, the type of tomato I like best is the big, rugged, deeply-ribbed (red) one. The sort you find in markets in the South of France and elsewhere in the Mediterranean. This one is actually "Monserrat". It's not ripe yet, but it soon will be...
What's your opinion? Do you think red tomatoes (in general) taste any different to yellow ones or orange, or green?
That's funny that you prefer ed, because I am always drawn to yellow. Or bicolored. But not orange because they are too sweet. And yes I do think different colored tomatoes taste different. Yellows are lighter, orange is sweeter, blacks tend towards smokey. I like bicolored for their beauty. My current favorite is the light yellow Lenny and Gracie's Kentucky Heirloom which is non-acidic with a delicately sweet taste.
ReplyDeleteI'm not keen on the small pear shaped yellow toms. They taste bland and when ripe, the texture is a bit floury. However, a friend going away for 5 weeks has just given me a bag of them, so I'm looking through my recipes to make a chutney. Never look a gift horse etc etc!
ReplyDeleteWe have cut down on varieties this year and have grown just four types. I'm not sure about taste as I haven't eaten a yellow tomato for a while.Do you know whether yellow tomatoes are as rich in lycopene?
ReplyDeleteAs for the children saying one variety is sour - that would possibly be less sour to an adult - have you tried them?
Nice display.I am growing some yellow Grosse lisse this year.Hopefully they will be good?.
ReplyDeleteThey do all taste different so a good reason to have several to choose from when it comes to dinner time. That Monserrat looks impressive
ReplyDeleteFavorite for flavor are the black paul robeson.i am also interested in stretching the season. Can have stupice at the end of May, and wild cherry till the end of october. Also sun gold (orange) are pick and eat for the grandkids.
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