What are the best varieties for market?

Some folks shop the farmers markets for the unusual OP variety. When they buy a tomato, they are actually buying a seed packet which they can plant. The neat thing is they can eat the package the seeds came in and determine if they want to grow the seed in their garden. I know my eye and my interest are always attracted by something different. If it doesn't meet the taste test requirements, I won't grow it. A lady on a different forum reported purchasing a beautiful, large, yellow tomato at a farmers market. Her anticipation built up all day. When she got home, the first thing she did was slice the yellow tomato and was very disappointed to find it tasted like low quality cardboard. The tomato seller made some money on the one tomato, but he lost a customer. She felt the grower had cheated her by selling her a pretty, but inferior quality product and she will not return to his booth.

Ted

Raybo,

Your Big Beef plants look beautiful, healthy, and productive. Are they the F1 Big Beef, or the Big Beef OP?

Ted

[rnewste]

Ted,

The ones in the photo came from TomatoFest Big Beef seeds. I am assuming that they are OP. In any event, I have both types and for the next Season, I will grow one OP along side one F1 to note any taste, production, disease tolerance differences. Another "Mythbusters Challenge" for 2011.

Raybo

[Lee]

Originally Posted by rnewste

Ted,

The ones in the photo came from TomatoFest Big Beef seeds. I am assuming that they are OP. In any event, I have both types and for the next Season, I will grow one OP along side one F1 to note any taste, production, disease tolerance differences. Another "Mythbusters Challenge" for 2011.

Raybo

Now, Ray, What kind of Mythbusters challenge will that be? You ain't got no diseases in your neck of the woods...
Now, if you want to send some of those BB OP seeds to NC
where we've got diseases to make your maters split, that 'd be
a real test!


Lee

[rnewste]

Lee,

We had plenty of problems to deal with this Season. Psyllids, Tomato Russet Mites were the major ones. While not a great fungal disease area, we did have some. Big Beef was planted 200 days ago and it is the only variety that has survived this long - and still producing fruit today. I'll bet I still am picking from it on Christmas Day. Love Big Beef for its survival instincts!

Raybo

[organic_john]

Hi Carolyn,

Thanks for your suggestions. I made a list of restaurants today and I'll be calling around. I'll try higher-end places, hopefully they will appreciate quality. What I'll try to do is see if there's any general consensus on what they are looking for (for example, heirloom round red slicers). Then I'll have a basic idea of where to focus. Once my fruits come in next year I'll call back and see what chefs may be interested in sampling my wares.

I almost posted in the Market forum, actually. But I thought maybe non-market folks might know of some market varieties... I'll be posting in the future on the Market board, for sure. Thanks!

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by organic_john

Hi Carolyn,

Thanks for your suggestions. I made a list of restaurants today and I'll be calling around. I'll try higher-end places, hopefully they will appreciate quality. What I'll try to do is see if there's any general consensus on what they are looking for (for example, heirloom round red slicers). Then I'll have a basic idea of where to focus. Once my fruits come in next year I'll call back and see what chefs may be interested in sampling my wares.

I almost posted in the Market forum, actually. But I thought maybe non-market folks might know of some market varieties... I'll be posting in the future on the Market board, for sure. Thanks!

No problem at all posting here in the General Discussion area about possible varieties. But there are other issues and considerations posted in that other Forum by folks who have been doing it for a long time, so at some point you may want to read through some of the threads there.

[geeboss]

Moreton or Rampo, Supersonic or Big Beef

http://www.harrisseeds.com/storefron...-big-beef.aspx

http://www.harrisseeds.com/storefron...o-moreton.aspx

http://www.harrisseeds.com/storefron...untreated.aspx

http://njfarmfresh.rutgers.edu/docum...sorderform.pdf

[barkeater]

geeboss,

I see you just got the njfarmfresh e-mail too! Everyone knows I think Ramapo is the best market tomato with the best flavor in the northeast and I highly recommend it too. At my farm market in Monmouth County, New Jersey in the 80's and 90's Jet Star and Burpees Supersteak were my customer favorites - no one was asking what happened to the good Jersey tomato back then!

I've never tried Moreton's but it is tops on my list next year. I got to get the T-shirt too. ;-)

[Farmer Matt]

The best red that I have grown is Adventure, Brandywine L/S & Sioux.

[wordwiz]

What I have learned is to ignore how people rate the taste of a tomato. What's one person's treasure is another person's trash. But texture - that's pretty much universal. If a tomato has a tough skin, it is not going to be great to sell after the customer tries it. Ditto with the amount of juice or the sacs of gel with seeds in a ripe fruit. No one wants a tomato that is going to leave their bun soggy or their shirt/blouse covered with tomato juice.

To me, it's a balancing act. I need to grow as many pounds per plant as possible but at the same time the fruit has to be acceptable, if not desirable. I grew Bell-type toms this year that were as productive as any toms in the garden, but the skin was tough. Probably would have been great for a chef who wanted to stuff and then bake them but not so good if the stuffing was tuna or cottage cheese.

It takes a lot of time, and Google may try to charge you for overusing it (!), but you can read reviews done by university extension agencies regarding the marketability of different varieties.

Mike