Taste only!!

[barkeater]

Brandywine
Black Cherry
Ramapo
Momotaro/Odoriko
Grannys Heart

Of course where you grow them makes all the difference. I'm sure my list would be completely different if I grew in CA, NC, or especially NJ (where almost all tomatoes have the best taste possible ;-)

[doublehelix]

Originally Posted by hornstrider

... but the blossoms kept falling off. I think I was able to harvest only one Brandywine tomato.

You might want to try Stump of the World as a substitute for Brandywine. Liz Birt would be another good choice. They do better in our climate and are great tasting tomatoes. I have given up on Brandywine ever doing well in the hot humid south.

[nctomatoman]

And yet Brandywine did extremely well for me last year in Raleigh....after a few years of it being a dud. Go figure....also a great year for Lucky Cross (after a few really iffy ones).

I got my plants in one month sooner than typical - and it seemed to work wonders (had my best year in ages, which followed my worst ever!)

[b54red]

From season to season it changes but I'll give it a try.

Terhune
JDs Special C Tex
Donskoi
Stump of the World
Indian Stripe
KBX (oops I went over)

Any of the above could be replaced depending on the season by Brandywine Sudduths, Limbaugh's Legacy, Rose, Fish Lake Oxheart, Black Krim, Inidan Stripe, Big Cheef and several others that have exhibited that superior flavor at one time or another.

[remy]

Stump of the World - best overall -pink
Little Lucky -yellow/bi
Humph - green
Carbon - black
Orange Minsk -orange
Fantome do Laos - white
ok, that's 6 oops!
Remy

I had a great year as well in the hot, hot southwest. Like nctomatoman, my success was due to planting out in early March instead of early April.

Brandywine (grew huge and produced abundantly)
Black Krim (great taste, but the texture took some time to accept)
Hillbilly (a real surprise)
Arbuznyi (catfaced bad, but still tasted great)
Mortgage Lifter ( A total surprise! Most folks don't think it has much taste)

Ted

[Fred Hempel]

I loved Malakhitovaya Shkatulka for a couple weeks. It was fantastic until the whole 100 ft flamed out spectacularly (mildew).

Has anyone else noticed disease susceptibility in this variety? It was very conspicuously susceptible compared to it's neighbors in our field.

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by Fred Hempel

I loved Malakhitovaya Shkatulka for a couple weeks. It was fantastic until the whole 100 ft flamed out spectacularly (mildew).

Has anyone else noticed disease susceptibility in this variety? It was very conspicuously susceptible compared to it's neighbors in our field.

Fred, you know I like green when ripe varieties and, well I'll call it Malachite Box as translated from the above since it's easier to spell, has never been a problem here in upstate NY where my plants are grown.

For other folks giving lists, I'm not going to list my top 5 b'c it's a revolving door situation in that it's always changing as I grow more and more new varieties and find I like some of those better than the ones I thought I liked best, so no set in stone list of top 5 varieties .

[Alpinejs]

I doubt that any of our lists are "set in stone". I am growing at least 30 this year that I
have never tasted but some of these fruitcakes claim they are the best!! Only Brandywine repeated from my top five from last year. About the only way that I can see
my lists ever getting "set in stone" is to quit reading Tomatoville and trying new varieties
and not reading catalogs.

I have a couple of buckets of green tomatoes I picked before the first fall freeze. The plants are a combination of spring planted plants and late summer planted plants. This evening, I removed a few ripe tomatoes from the buckets and sliced them up to see which I think tastes best. My reason for doing it was the fact that someone included Orange Minsk on their list of the five best and I had not even considered it.

I tried Black Krim, Mortgage Lifter, Orange Minsk, and a couple of other red varieties plus some Jaune Flamme. The Orange Minsk won easily. My taste buds prefer flavors leaning toward acidic instead of sweet and the Orange Minsk had it. I think I didn't consider it before because most of the fruits were deformed to the point of being ugly. The Orange Minsk plant was also one I planted back in March. I still don't like the texture of the Black Krim, but the taste is good.

Ted

[RobinB]

Hello all! I'm new to Tomatoville, but thought I'd say hi and join in! I started my tomato addiction in 1993 when I went to a tomato tasting in Central California by Gary Ibsen. I have a top five from when we lived in California years ago, but as we now live in Reno, NV I can't grow any of my old favorites. I always have to assume that I only have about 90 days to grow summer veggies. The last two years, we have not had our first frost until late October, but I can never assume that we'll have that much time! I mostly choose varieties that are listed as 75 days or earlier, although I always TRY one or two 80 days tomatoes just for kicks.
My list for Reno is:
Lime Green Salad (every year, no matter what)
Black & Brown Boar (a wonderful addition last year, a keeper)
Csikos Botermo (a real surprise last year, a keeper)
Maya & Sion's Airdrie Classic (from Jeff Casey new and really yummy last year)
Mini Yellow* (see below)

My list (where days to maturity don't count) would also include:
Paul Robeson (gonna try Paul again this year, fingers crossed)
Arbuznyi
Hillbilly
Mortgage Lifter

I'm trying a bunch of new ones this year and dumping more "earlies" that just don't taste good enough to bother with. I have come to the realization that it just isn't worth it to have tomatoes in July just to have tomatoes. If they don't taste good, they are not worth growing.

* I also have one that I grow and save seeds from each year that I originally got on eBay of all places. It's a teeny yellow tomato that last year, came in at 40 days from planting, but is usually more like 45-50. The guy said it was from Siberia and called it "Mini Yellow". I wish I knew it's real name, but just know that it has fantastic flavor and anybody that tries it absolutely loves it.

We ate the last of our "picked when green" tomatoes yesterday. I picked them green in mid November before the first freeze. I used them in a cabbage and smoked sausage dish so we could have our traditional southern dish for good luck on new years day. I think they were Mortgage Lifter tomatoes, but I can't be sure because the green tomatoes all go in the same buckets when picked. The tomatoes gave the dish a great tomato flavor. I think it is nice that I can eat tomatoes on new years day picked from plants which were planted in the ground in the first week of March of the previous year. The bonus is the fact that they still taste great.

As I was cleaning my garden last week, I shoveled up half a wheel barrow load of tomatoes which froze on the vines and dropped to the ground. It was kinda sad seeing how many nice tomatoes were wasted because they were hidden deep in the foliage.

Ted

[pacmanJohn]

#1 - SunGold (cherry F1)
#2 - Carbon (black)
#3 - Hege German Pink (pink)
#4 - Brandywine Sudduth (pink)
#5 - 'LilNAR' - (unstable 'NAR' that I'm trying to stabilize. Similar to Goose Creek but sweeter I think, very unique taste). I may need some help after this year stabilizing if I get a pretty good F3.

[JoAnne]

Only 5? I'm going to have to make a separate list for cherries....

Green Cherokee
Hawaiian Pineapple
Orange Minsk
Paul Robeson
Green Zebra
Goose Creek (Whoops, that's 6 )

Cherries:
Green Doctors
Sungold
Black Cherry
Isis Candy

And a honorable mention for Wasipicon Peach. That's as short as I can make the list.

DH is enjoying himself teasing me about my 11 top 5 tomatoes.....

[carpenterlady]

Black Krim
Sungold F1
KBX
Kelloggs Breakfast
Neves Azorean Red

The first two I can get ripe in my garden. The last three are from my seedlings that my friends in Minneapolis grow. I garden vicariously through them. I came here in 2006 in the quest for a ripe good tasting tomato. Great thread!