What's your favorite variety with old-fashioned taste?

[AKmark]

SjamesNorway, the cross has a superior tomato flavor, I plan on sharing seed, so others can try it, I did not make the cross, but I am on my third year of the line. I liked a potato leaf red tomato that I had last year, it produced the plants I am all tweeked out over this year.
The yield is average, but the tomatoes look nice, and are smaller, only 3-5 oz or so.
I also have had a great year with Chapman, they are so delicious, but not as rich as the cross.
Here's my short list of similar types growing that I am comparing them too all of the time.
Forgive my spelling,(pinkish stuff) Crnkovic Yugolslavian, Cowlick's, Sudduth's, Stump, EPB, German Gueen, Momotaro, Fred L., Rebel Yell, Earl's Faux, GJ, Benton's, BW Liams
, BW from Croatia, Boondock's, Richardson, Aunt Ginney's Purple, Purple Dog Creek, Marizol Purple, and more. (Reds) Chapman, NAR, Delicious, Druzba, BW Landis Valley, Cosmnaut Volkov, my Mckinley came out PL and red, Mountain Fresh, Aker's West Virginia, Early Girl, Great Divide, Maiden's Kiss, and a bunch more, like 80 more varieties.
I think the cross is the best of the lot for this year, side by side, both its red and pink versions,
Heck, they're all good though

[sjamesNorway]

Originally Posted by feldon30

Have you visited toftegaards gartneri in Køge, Denmark? They have an impressive tomato and pepper (staerk) growing operation. Over 80 tomato and 100 pepper varieties. I attended their open house for two years.

Hi feldon30. Thanks for the tip. I checked out their website, and it looks like an interesting place. Køge would be an overnight ferry Oslo-Copenhagen, plus an hours drive, from here. How did you come to be there?

[sjamesNorway]

Originally Posted by AKmark

SjamesNorway, the cross has a superior tomato flavor, I plan on sharing seed, so others can try it, I did not make the cross, but I am on my third year of the line.[...]
I think the cross is the best of the lot for this year, side by side, both its red and pink versions,
Heck, they're all good though

Hi Mark. I'd really like to try the cross.

Steve

[bower]

Steve, to the original question, the classic red tomato taste that I like is at it's best in Napoli a Fiaschetto, a tough, medium sized determinate that I got from Solana Seeds. A rich tomato taste which is balanced, not leaning towards tart nor sweet. These are small fruit.

This year I was looking for a good rich tasting red, didn't find it in any of my crosses except the cherries, and the OP's of large fruit were none of them at their best this year.. however, I finally found a red I really like in an OP that got turfed outdoors very early due to being infested with gnats. Altajskiy Urozajniy endured all that cold and set some medium sized, very blunt heart shaped fruit which finally ripened this past week... and to my astonishment, absolutely delicious and beyond the 'balanced' taste which I quite like this one is super sweet.

Re: your grow list. Pink BTD did nicely in my greenhouse last year, great taste and decent production under the circumstance. It is in a small group of "early midseason" varieties that are just early enough to be worth growing here. ie they are our "lates". Anna Russian I have also grown in the greenhouse, set lots early but didn't grow them until the weather warmed up. Eva Purple Ball was a dud for us, production wise, both at my greenhouse and at the farm. Late, small fruit, large needy plant with very few set. That being said, it is worth growing once for the taste which IMO is one of the best. I grew three crosses this year involving EPB as a parent, and only one was even moderately productive - none tasted anything like EPB, alas.

[sjamesNorway]

Originally Posted by bower

Steve, to the original question, the classic red tomato taste that I like is at it's best in Napoli a Fiaschetto, a tough, medium sized determinate that I got from Solana Seeds. A rich tomato taste which is balanced, not leaning towards tart nor sweet. These are small fruit.

This year I was looking for a good rich tasting red, didn't find it in any of my crosses except the cherries, and the OP's of large fruit were none of them at their best this year.. however, I finally found a red I really like in an OP that got turfed outdoors very early due to being infested with gnats. Altajskiy Urozajniy endured all that cold and set some medium sized, very blunt heart shaped fruit which finally ripened this past week... and to my astonishment, absolutely delicious and beyond the 'balanced' taste which I quite like this one is super sweet.

Re: your grow list. Pink BTD did nicely in my greenhouse last year, great taste and decent production under the circumstance. It is in a small group of "early midseason" varieties that are just early enough to be worth growing here. ie they are our "lates". Anna Russian I have also grown in the greenhouse, set lots early but didn't grow them until the weather warmed up. Eva Purple Ball was a dud for us, production wise, both at my greenhouse and at the farm. Late, small fruit, large needy plant with very few set. That being said, it is worth growing once for the taste which IMO is one of the best. I grew three crosses this year involving EPB as a parent, and only one was even moderately productive - none tasted anything like EPB, alas.

Hi Bower, and thanks very much for this information. It's particularly helpful, because I think we have very similar conditions. Your recommendations will be high on my list for next year.

Steve

[JLJ_]

Originally Posted by sjamesNorway

There must be other threads on this subject, but I haven't been able to find them. You know what I'm looking for: the tomato that tastes like the one your father or grandfather grew, that always tasted great. Only your favorite please, not favorites. (I know it's not easy.)

Steve

As Rutgers was mentioned, I have to put in a word for Rutgers' parent, Marglobe. It was Grandma's favorite for decades, as she always said it's a rugged workhorse of a plant that stays healthy and produces tomatoes that are good fresh, good for canning, good for juice, good for chili, good for cooking any tomato dish, good for sauces.

Rutgers must have much to be said in its favor and perform excellently for many people, or it wouldn't have become Marglobe's successor in market dominance, but for me, Marglobe and others of its children have been more rugged and more reliable producers of better fruit than Rutgers, year after year.

[Lindalana]

Originally Posted by bower

Steve, to the original question, the classic red tomato taste that I like is at it's best in Napoli a Fiaschetto, a tough, medium sized determinate that I got from Solana Seeds. A rich tomato taste which is balanced, not leaning towards tart nor sweet. These are small fruit.

This year I was looking for a good rich tasting red, didn't find it in any of my crosses except the cherries, and the OP's of large fruit were none of them at their best this year.. however, I finally found a red I really like in an OP that got turfed outdoors very early due to being infested with gnats. Altajskiy Urozajniy endured all that cold and set some medium sized, very blunt heart shaped fruit which finally ripened this past week... and to my astonishment, absolutely delicious and beyond the 'balanced' taste which I quite like this one is super sweet.

Re: your grow list. Pink BTD did nicely in my greenhouse last year, great taste and decent production under the circumstance. It is in a small group of "early midseason" varieties that are just early enough to be worth growing here. ie they are our "lates". Anna Russian I have also grown in the greenhouse, set lots early but didn't grow them until the weather warmed up. Eva Purple Ball was a dud for us, production wise, both at my greenhouse and at the farm. Late, small fruit, large needy plant with very few set. That being said, it is worth growing once for the taste which IMO is one of the best. I grew three crosses this year involving EPB as a parent, and only one was even moderately productive - none tasted anything like EPB, alas.

Yay to Altajskiy Urozhainij- sheesh, this is mouthful of the name, translate Productive from Altai. I've grown it last year- it is yum yum yum.

[Sun City Linda]

Originally Posted by PaulF

My father grew only the Boys, Girls, Betters etc. None of them were anything but spitters. We all had to pile on the sugar just to eat them. The closest to an old fashioned tomato that I really like is Old Brooks.

I like Old Brooks a lot too as I recall we have other similar favs, like Silvery Fir Tree. My Old Brooks are fairly small. Abundant, but only 4 oz at best and some smaller. I keep reading seed catalog descriptions of 8 or more oz. What is your experience?

[sjamesNorway]

Originally Posted by JLJ_

As Rutgers was mentioned, I have to put in a word for Rutgers' parent, Marglobe. It was Grandma's favorite for decades, as she always said it's a rugged workhorse of a plant that stays healthy and produces tomatoes that are good fresh, good for canning, good for juice, good for chili, good for cooking any tomato dish, good for sauces.

Rutgers must have much to be said in its favor and perform excellently for many people, or it wouldn't have become Marglobe's successor in market dominance, but for me, Marglobe and others of its children have been more rugged and more reliable producers of better fruit than Rutgers, year after year.

Interesting! I have an inkling that Marglobe might be the tomato my dad grew.

Steve

[zipcode]

Originally Posted by bower

Eva Purple Ball was a dud for us, production wise, both at my greenhouse and at the farm. Late, small fruit, large needy plant with very few set. That being said, it is worth growing once for the taste which IMO is one of the best. I grew three crosses this year involving EPB as a parent, and only one was even moderately productive - none tasted anything like EPB, alas.

I think there may be more than 1 EPB circulating. The first time I tried was the same you said. Huge plants with rather small fruit, fantastic taste, but production was incredibly poor. The color was a dark pink, small globes.
Now the real one I got is a lighter pink, and fruit gets big (300g is common), still perfectly round, has a characteristic gold specking , and are overly juicy (borderline watery). Production is one of the best I've seen, but the wateriness made me not grow it again, also it was overly sensitive to something in my garden (not sure what, it didn't seem like septoria, and it was the only plants who had the problem).

I tasted a Big Beef today that turned out better than usual. I'd say the flavour is classic, a bit on the sweet side, but not too much.

[bower]

Originally Posted by Lindalana

Yay to Altajskiy Urozhainij- sheesh, this is mouthful of the name, translate Productive from Altai. I've grown it last year- it is yum yum yum.

So funny... when I was sharing out the extras, I couldn't get any interest in this one... nobody wants a tomato that they can't pronounce!
Everyone who tastes it will change their mind though... so stupendously sweet and meaty and rich - I will grow it again next year even though I have a houseful of growouts to do.

[sjamesNorway]

Originally Posted by bower

So funny... when I was sharing out the extras, I couldn't get any interest in this one... nobody wants a tomato that they can't pronounce!
Everyone who tastes it will change their mind though... so stupendously sweet and meaty and rich - I will grow it again next year even though I have a houseful of growouts to do.

I'm convinced! I'll be checking out seed availability in Europe.

Steve

[Tormato]

Originally Posted by zipcode

I think there may be more than 1 EPB circulating. The first time I tried was the same you said. Huge plants with rather small fruit, fantastic taste, but production was incredibly poor. The color was a dark pink, small globes.
Now the real one I got is a lighter pink, and fruit gets big (300g is common), still perfectly round, has a characteristic gold specking , and are overly juicy (borderline watery). Production is one of the best I've seen, but the wateriness made me not grow it again, also it was overly sensitive to something in my garden (not sure what, it didn't seem like septoria, and it was the only plants who had the problem).

I tasted a Big Beef today that turned out better than usual. I'd say the flavour is classic, a bit on the sweet side, but not too much.

The "real" EPB you got doesn't sound like the real one, to me. Mine are always deep pink, smooth, blemish free (no gold speckling), 4-8 ounces, and with the rare characteristic of frequently falling off the plant when almost fully ripe. This is the same as virtually all of the descriptions that I've read.

[seaeagle]

Originally Posted by Tormato

The "real" EPB you got doesn't sound like the real one, to me. Mine are always deep pink, smooth, blemish free (no gold speckling), 4-8 ounces, and with the rare characteristic of frequently falling off the plant when almost fully ripe. This is the same as virtually all of the descriptions that I've read.

That sounds exactly like the Eva Purple Ball I grow, and I originally got the seed from a very reputable source

Another thing to look for is, EPB is always the runt seedling, always smaller than the other seedlings and this carries over for a good while after transplanting to the garden.It eventually becomes a beast over time though and goes till frost

[zipcode]

It's definitely the real deal. Yes, the fruit does fall off.
Also it does have gold speckling, as I've seen many times mentioned in this forum (by Carolyn for example). I think it's described as white, which is possible, I haven't grown it in a few years, my memory might be playing tricks.
As for the colour, it's lighter than other pink varieties to my eyes, including my false EPB, or Gregori's Altai, but I guess this might depend on growing conditions as well.