Tomatoes – the 2023 Crop

The last of the tomatoes are now ripening in the kitchen and I’ve been looking back at the 2023 season. I grew several varieties as part of my Gardening Trials (seed all #gifted) and there were some really varied fruits.

Despite the cool weather for much of the summer we had a really good crop – there are now many pots of pasta sauce in the freezer. I was also lucky that blight didn’t hit until the very last weeks and most of the tomatoes escaped.

So, what was good about this year’s harvest? As always, this is very much down to personal taste and growing conditions will also affect the way varieties perform.

The Top Tomatoes

There were three varieties that really stood out for us this year, although I would grow most of them again.

The first was the unusual looking ‘Black Moon’ (seed supplied by wholesale seed suppliers Burpee). A mix of red and almost black, it had firm flesh and a great flavour. It proved to be one that was always picked out first when making a salad.

My OH described ‘Riesentraube’ as “a tomato eater’s variety” and it certainly scored highly with a bit of crunch but still juicy and a good level of sweetness. It’s an old cherry variety from Germany (seed given by The Plant Guys.)

Our leading trio is completed by the wonderfully named ‘Toddler’ (seed from Burpee). Described as a “cocktail tomato”, it was prolific and produced fruits that had a lovely sweet flavour, and lots of juice while still keeping a pleasing firmness.

Other Varieties in the Gardening Trials

The rest of the varieties were a real mixture ranging from huge beefsteak to tiny cherry tomatoes.

First off the blocks this year was ‘Orangello’ (supplied by Chiltern Seeds). The first to fruit, it had a really good flavour although the skin was slightly tough but that could have been down to growing conditions.

I really liked the appearance of ‘Garnet’ (seed from Kings Seeds), which had a slight green tinge to the stalk end and a soft red colour. It was a bit bigger than the average cherry tomato and had a good flavour.

‘Sub Arctic Plenty’ (from The Plant Guys) is an heirloom variety that is reputed to be one of the earliest, although it was beaten by ‘Orangello’ in my garden. It’s also reliable even in cool weather. We liked its medium-sized fruit, which had a strong flavour and lots of juice – perfect for a tomato sandwich.

‘Orange Berry’ (also from The Plant Guys) was a bright orange cherry variety with a nice acidity to its flavour. It also produced a lot of tomatoes – another winner.

Another prolific variety was ‘Rapunzel’ (seed from Suttons). It’s reputed to be very sweet but we found the cherry tomatoes to be a bit lacking in flavour, perhaps down to growing conditions.

Also cherry variety, ‘Bite Size’ (seed from Thompson & Morgan) had sweet, juicy fruits although the skins tended towards toughness. That didn’t stop us eating them all before I could get a picture!

Out of the big varieties, ‘St Pierre’ (Mr Fothergill’s) was our favourite. It produced very juicy fruits with a good flavour.

‘Paoline’ (also Mr Fothergill’s) is more medium-sized but equally as good. We liked the flavour and the fact it was very juicy.

‘Pantano’, an Italian heritage variety (seed given by Franchi Seeds) proved tricky. The first couple of fuits succumbed to blossom end rot – usually caused by irregular watering. However, the subsquent crop proved worth the effort with a good flavour.

‘Romello’ was another mini plum variety (given by Chiltern Seeds). It had a good flavour and produced a lot of fruits but we preferred ‘Orangello’.

‘Cocktail Crush’ (also from Chiltern Seeds) produced standard-sized tomatoes with a lot of juice but we felt they lacked flavour.

Likewise, ‘Gold Sunrise’ (Kings Seeds) was a good cropper but didn’t have a lot of flavour and a slightly ‘woolly’ texture.

When it came to yellow fruits, we preferred ‘Bliss’ (seed from Burpee). These unusual torpedo-shaped tomatoes were sweet and juicy but had a slightly thick skin. A great looking tomato that added another dimension to panzanella – a favourite summer dish.

‘Noire de Crimee’ (Franchi Seeds) was another unusual looking heirloom tomato with dark markings. We found the flavour a bit weak but I’m not convinced the plants had their best summer so it’s one I will be growing again next year.

We thought ‘Alfresco’ (seeds Mr Fothergill’s) was a bit watery and lacking in flavour. It produced plenty of tomatoes and they’ve been added to the pasta sauce.

Finally, few of the tomatoes were as pretty as ‘Rosella’ (The Plant Guys), which had pink-tinged cherry fruits. It didn’t have a strong flavour but was worth growing for looks alone.

With the exception of ‘Rapunzel’, which is best grown under cover, all the varieties had some plants in the greenhouse and some outside. It seemed to make little difference to the cropping although those under cover escaped the blight completely.

Next season, I’m going to try out the Autopot watering system on the tomatoes (you can read about it here). It will be interesting to see if that makes a difference.

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