I never tire of ranking tomatoes

[bully]

I am WAY off topic here

All bully threads eventually run waaay off topic..in fact we encourage it

[TomatoDon]

Thanks Lisa,

I have a little Cabin out in the country and used to have a skeet range set up there. In fact, I still do, but never use it. It's right where we used to start the field trials, but that is long gone, too. Fun days. A good horse, a good dog, and a cute girlfriend.

Now, you surely know that CSA has a much higher meaning than Community Supported Agriculture. Or wait...isn't that what CSA meant in the beginning?

The rating thing has come up many times. I thought, and Bully agreed (he started the thread I refer to) that it would be a good idea to have one here. I doubt there are over 50 tomatoes that people really love in general, and it would be easy to rate them. After 50 you get into all kinds of personal tastes, geography, etc. But I've kept a list, and there really is not more than about 30 that the real tomato people mention over and over.

Suze is as good as they get, but she has that link to another site that she thinks has already accomplished the purpose. But I agree with you, we need our own here at Tomatoville. And we need our own thread explaining abbreviations such as OTV, OP, SSE, etc. I had no idea what they were talking about in the beginning, and still don't, half the time. Lots of learning left to do, and that's why I want these educational threads here.

We'll see what Bully posts next. We'll see in the next few days if people here really want our own list. If so, I will track it and post it.

Don

It's 9:00 pm and the handyman is back next door working on the addition to my new neighbor/Vietnamese lady's house. He works on houses till midnight. The lady cleaner was here one night with her daughter, and I ate my supper at 11 pm with the kid watching. The handyman's wife mows grass in the dark (by headlight), our mayor mows grass and is a painter on the side (in-law to the lady mower), and the past mayor here was the newspaper deliveryman. The post master is a gardener, with a husband who collects old cars. I sold them one. A 1957 Chevy with less than 10,000 miles on it, purchaed from a neighbor who had the beauty parlor here. All original, with the spare tire still in the trunk, never used. The post master before was a crappie fisherman, and would go to Gum's Crossing on Grenada Lake and catch 20 slabs on his lunch hour, then rush back to put up the mail. In those days our mail always smelled like fish. He was also the first baseman on our softball team when I was younger, but had to quit when the doctor made him give up whiskey. The post master before that was my uncle, and he's 91 now, and still flies to Canada every fall to duck hunt.

I moved back five years ago and ain't found nothin 'bout it normal yet, but it sure is fun. Now...why did I leave Oxford?

Don
Mayberry/Hooterville, RFD
Zip Code: E I E I O

[Tom_Ato]

Well my ranking is less exact. I have three categories. Really like them. Kind of like them. Don't like them. I wouldn't begin to know how to put a number on tomatoes except for a very few at the top that would get 10's..

Within the top group, some taste truly outstanding, but even that varies sometimes from plant to plant, tomato to tomato and year to year. For example, probably the best four I've ever tasted are Brandywine, Cherokee Purple, Marianna's Peace, and Earl's Faux. I've yet to taste a CP as good as the first year I grew it, and I'm still waiting for another great Brandywine and MP. Of the four, Earl's Faux has been the most consistently great flavored for me.

At last year's CHOPTAG taste fest, where I sampled over 100 varieties (used the taste and spit method), some people were raving over Burracker's Favorite. It definitely fell at the bottom of the "Don't like them" category for me--not highly flavored with mushy texture. My favorites there were Green Giant and German.

Ken

[Tom_Ato]

I remember when my wife and I were picking baby names. We agreed on our top five names and then each ranked them and assigned points based on that ranking. Top was five points, then four, three, and so on. Well, I knew which one she liked the most so I rated it really low. She knew which one I liked the most and so rated it really low. The winner was a name that neither of us really liked.

No one around here would purposely rank a "competitor" really low to elevate their own favorite, would they???

[TomatoDon]

No, I don't think they would rig the game. We haven't come up with anything definite yet on how to do it. It would be a rating thing for taste, then general information about the plant. Suze found a similiar site on the net, so we're still pondering that.

I noticed today that Carolyn assessed some tomato varieties on another grow list. Personlly, I think it would be fun, and also helpful to newcomers like me who are still learning the game. Rating tomatoes seems to be a standard topic on these forums.

Don