I spent the weekend clearing the last of the tomatoes from the greenhouse, something that always signals the end of the summer.
Batches of roasted fruit have been frozen for use over winter, there are more to eat now in the fridge and the green tomatoes are slowly ripening indoors.
It’s been a good year, despite the outdoor plants succumbing to blight at the end of August. I always grow at least one of every variety in the greenhouse in case this happens, particularly if I’m growing them as part of my Gardening Trials.
This year, I was trying out five varieties – given to me free either as seed or, in one case, as a grafted plant, in return for a fair review.
Obviously, any taste test is subjective and, as for growing, all the varieties germinated well and grew with no problems – until the blight struck.
The out-and-out winner for us was ‘Darby Striped’, a heritage variety from Garden Organic.
We loved this tomato. It had a good flavour, was very juicy with a classic tomato taste and was simply beautiful to look at. I’ve saved some seed for next year and will definitely be growing it again.
It’s available to members of Garden Organic via their seed bank. Their donor saved seed from a red and yellow tomato given to them in the 1960s by Dr Lewis Darby of the Glasshouse Crops Research Institute.
Our second favourite wasn’t strictly new to us this year as I grew it last year from seed supplied by Suttons.
This season, ‘Honeycomb’ was one of three tomatoes given to me by Burpee. This firm does not sell to the public but instead supplies many of our big seed companies.
I grew it again because we liked it so much last year and it didn’t disappoint. The plants are prolific, the first to fruit – bar the grafted plant – and produce golden cherry tomatoes with a fantastic flavour. This is rapidly becoming a family favourite.
The other two tomatoes from Burpee weren’t as good. ‘Consuelo’ produced small fruits with a good flavour but we found the skins to be a bit tough.
‘Verandah Red’ is a dwarf variety suitable for growing on a patio. I put them in pots and they are ideal for that and produced masses of fruit.
However, we weren’t keen on the flavour or texture and, despite being billed as blight resistant, they were the first plants to get it. I think it was possible due to the fact the compact nature of the plant meant air circulation was poor.
Suttons also sent a blight-resistant variety, ‘Crimson Cocktail’, the first cherry with this attribute. We liked the flavour of this, although the skins were tougher than ‘Honeycomb’ or ‘Sweet Aperitif’, my other go-to cherry tomato. Unfortunately, like the other outdoor plants it also was hit by blight.
The strangest of the tomatoes was ‘Reisetomate’ given to me as a grafted plant by Dobies.
This produced tiny clusters of tomatoes that you could peel off individually. That part certainly worked but we found the flavour slightly sour and the skin tough. It was much better cooked.
I’m already lining up varieties to try next year. Let’s hope the blight stays away.
You can read about last year’s tomato gardening trials here.
Do follow my blog to get an email alert about new posts.