JERSEY TOMATO

[Keiththibodeaux]

Ran across this interesting article the other day. Just passing it along.


KEVIN RIORDAN, INQUIRER COLUMNIST
POSTED: Sunday, August 16, 2015, 11:59 PM
image: http://media.philly.com/designimages...uirer-2014.jpg



The quintessential Jersey tomato is the one you can taste even decades after its flavor first burst on your tongue.

It's that indelible, summer-defining tomato you picked up at a farmstand on the White Horse Pike in Hammonton in 1960 and have been trying to buy, or grow, ever since.

"We constantly hear the question, 'What happened to the Jersey tomato?' " says horticulturist Tom Orton, noting that aesthetics, shelf life, and sliceability long ago eclipsed flavor in importance among mass market vendors.

"What people want," his colleague, agriculturist Jack Rabin adds, "is that great memory back."

The two Rutgers University researchers are on a team that aims to do just that.
Since 2010, they've been breeding a better version of the famous "Rutgers" variety, which became synonymous with the Jersey tomato for decades after it was released to the public in 1934.

Despite its fame and popularity, the Rutgers was never patented, and was so frequently crossbred by various seed companies that it ultimately lost its distinctiveness.

But after more than five years of cross-pollinating, cultivating, and evaluating the fruit of 230 "breeding lines," three finalists - potential successors to the Rutgers - have been selected for public taste-testing.

The top trio owes its existence to seeds derived from those of the original tomato's parents, one called Marglobe and the other JTD - after John T. Dorrance, who invented condensed soup for his Campbell Soup Co.

"This has been a very good summer," says Orton, 64, a Salem County resident who is the lead researcher. "We're just starting to harvest."

Public taste tests were to begin at 11 a.m. Saturday at the Earth Center of the Rutgers University Cooperative Extension in South Brunswick, Middlesex County. Sessions also are set for Aug. 20 at the Margate Farmers Market, in Margate, and on Aug. 26 at Snyder Farm in Pittstown, Hunterdon County.

"The Jersey was once the heart and soul of the tomato industry," says Bill Bangs, who retired from Campbell as a lead researcher in 2013.

Bangs, 63, now living in Florida, worked with Orton and Rabin on the tomato project along with his fellow Campbell retiree Dot Hall.

Hall, a Salem County resident, was crucial to getting the effort off the ground after striking up a conversation with Rabin at a Rutgers Extension Service event in 2009.

"We shared a passion for tomatoes and the historical partnership between Rutgers and Campbell's," recalls Hall, 58, who told Rabin that the company at the time still retained vintage seed stocks.

Later, the collaborators "talked about trying to re-create the Rutgers tomato," Hall says, adding, "we thought it would be fun."

The university's seed stocks had been discarded, perhaps unintentionally, in the 1950s. Campbell sold its seed operations in 2012, but by then the Rutgers tomato project was well underway.

"We used the same parents and the same procedures, but we wanted to end up with something that's a little more modern in terms of the structure and firmness of the fruit," Orton says. "I think we've been successful."

He and I are standing in the Tomato Breeding Nursery at the Rutgers Agricultural Research and Extension Center in Upper Deerfield.

These 325 acres of gorgeous Cumberland County farmland are where the first seeds were cross-pollinated and where Orton and research partner Peter Nitzsche did some of the breeding work.

"We did it on a shoestring," Orton says. "It was a labor of love."

So it seems with everyone involved in the effort, including Rutgers professor Bill Hlubik, whom I meet as he and several students prepare tomatoes for taste-testing.

Participants like me are being asked to sample five slices - including finalists and existing Jersey varieties - and rate them on sweetness, acidity, flavor, and texture.

The researchers say they have been looking for a balance of sweetness and acidity, and to retain "volatile" compounds, such as the aromatic furaneol, "that make a tomato taste like a tomato," Orton says.

The blind taste tests "in the aggregate, give us a picture of what the [taste] target ought to be," says Rabin, 59, who grew up on a Cumberland County farm. "You're actually helping our research. It's almost the equivalent of crowdsourcing."

Assisted by Rutgers senior Cesar Ramirez, 21, of West New York, Hlubik sets up my test.

Plastic plates of vivid red tomato wedges are lined up unmarked on a table, where I pick up an evaluation form, some toothpicks, and a cup of water to cleanse my palate between samples.

I munch, I write, I rate, I cleanse, and start again. It's over in no time. And I'm pleased to learn that my favorites include a candidate for what's tentatively being called the "Rutgers 250," in honor of the state university's anniversary next year.

Orton and Nitzsche will analyze all of the data, including the taste tests, and make the final decision; seeds will be available for sale at a nominal amount beginning in January 2016.

"Really the final decision will come down to flavor," says Nitzsche, 50, of Morris County. "The main goal is to make consumers and gardeners happy."

The new Rutgers variety, he adds, will have "that certain sweetness and bite that makes the customer say, 'This is a Jersey tomato.' "

kriordan@phillynews.com
856-779-3845 @inqkriordan

www.philly.com/blinq


Read more at http://www.philly.com/philly/news/ne...AJZOJgj87Gq.99

[kurt]

This was posted a week or two ago.

http://www.nj.com/cumberland/index.s...by_revivi.html

And,

http://www.northjersey.com/news/rutg...omato-1.685868

And seed sales might want to call first.

http://www.njfarmfresh.rutgers.edu/d...-orderform.pdf

[barefootgardener]

Thank you for posting this Keith. It is a good read with a lot of good info. Seeing how everyones taste perception is different for what they perceive as sweetness and acidity, it will be very interesting to see if the mass public agrees with the selection.

I am looking forward to the release of Rutgers 250. I wonder who will be selling it ? Did I miss that part? And also, I wonder what they mean by "nominal amount. " .. Guess we will find out!!
Ginny

[silverseed]

Those are pretty interesting articles, I read a similar one on the Rutgers Retro tomato a while back and After doing a little research online I found out that Fedco Seeds still has the original strain of Rutgers, it is an indeterminate and is said to taste better than the modern versions, I ordered some seeds from them for next year and can't wait to grow it out . I grew the modern determinate version of Rutgers this year and am impressed with it so far. I also plan on growing Ramapo as well.

[silverseed]

Here's a link to one of the articles http://njfarmfresh.rutgers.edu/docum...son8-27-12.pdf

[ginger2778]

Originally Posted by barefootgardener

Thank you for posting this Keith. It is a good read with a lot of good info. Seeing how everyones taste perception is different for what they perceive as sweetness and acidity, it will be very interesting to see if the mass public agrees with the selection.

I am looking forward to the release of Rutgers 250. I wonder who will be selling it ? Did I miss that part? And also, I wonder what they mean by "nominal amount. " .. Guess we will find out!!
Ginny

The nominal amount is on the order form on page 2 in Kurt's link. It isnt bad at all. Between $3&$4 for 25 seeds each of three hybrids, and $1.50 shipping.

[barefootgardener]

Originally Posted by ginger2778

The nominal amount is on the order form on page 2 in Kurt's link. It isnt bad at all. Between $3&$4 for 25 seeds each of three hybrids, and $1.50 shipping.

That is very reasonable. Thank you Marsha.

I am unable to open Kurt's link. I am on my sons Xbox to get to this forum. Someone borrowed our laptop for the time being.

Ginny

[Fusion_power]

I'm glad they are doing the work to come up with a new Rutgers tomato, but really wish they were working toward better disease tolerance. The genetics they are working with have only verticillium and fusarium tolerances.

[discoprincess]

Originally Posted by Keiththibodeaux

Public taste tests were to begin at 11 a.m. Saturday at the Earth Center of the Rutgers University Cooperative Extension in South Brunswick, Middlesex County. Sessions also are set for Aug. 20 at the Margate Farmers Market, in Margate, and on Aug. 26 at Snyder Farm in Pittstown, Hunterdon County.

I intend on going to this tasting tomorrow. I went last year.

[Starlight]

Originally Posted by discoprincess

[/B]

I intend on going to this tasting tomorrow. I went last year.

Great post and very interesting. I have heard here and there about the Jersey tomato and how it is supposed to be one of the better eating tomatoes.

Discoprincess.. I hope you post your thoughts on the testing. Do they let you know afterwards which ones what what so you know which variety you liked best?

[discoprincess]

Originally Posted by Starlight

Great post and very interesting. I have heard here and there about the Jersey tomato and how it is supposed to be one of the better eating tomatoes.

Discoprincess.. I hope you post your thoughts on the testing. Do they let you know afterwards which ones what what so you know which variety you liked best?

Absolutely. I was able to write down some notes quickly on the handout of the varieties being sampled. (Not all were available when I went by; supplies of some varieties were low.)

I liked Sweet Apertif and Sun Gold Select II.

There were a couple of varieties that I did not like at all.

[RJGlew]

Sampled my first ever Moreton F1 this week - a good tasting tomato & loaded with fruit.

[discoprincess]

I did go to this tasting last week. Here is a list of what I liked:

• Garnet
• Snow White
• Rosella (cherry tomato)
• Rapunzel
• Mirabelle Blanche
• Chef's Choice Orange
• Box Car Willie
• Tye Dye
• Green Berkeley Tie Dye
• Caiman
• Black Prince
• Pineapple Pig
• Cloudy Day
• Ramapo
• Rally

My favorite tent featured the cherry tomatoes.