Help me choose a medium, flavorful pink

[Ispahan]

Hey all,

After 30+ years of growing and eating tomatoes, I finally came to the conclusion a few years ago that I like pink tomatoes the best. Not sure why, but they always have a wonderful flavor for me.

Now I am researching what medium-sized (6-12 oz.) pink tomatoes I might like the best. While I love the large (HUGE) pink slicers, sometimes it is nice to have a smaller tomato to work with. Kind of makes you feel less overwhelmed at times, LOL!

I have researched some varieties and came up with a list. Can anyone tell me about:

Dora--sounds interesting though I am not sure where to find seeds?
Grosse Cotelee--looks wonderful in Carolyn's book but almost no one seems to grow it?
German Head--maybe larger than what I am looking for?
Rose de Berne--inconsistent flavor reports
Bradley--inconsistent flavor reports and a determinate, which I am not too happy about
Eva Purple Ball--also inconsistent flavor reports and a lot of sources say this is only a 3-4 oz. fruit

Any others that I missed that I should look into? I am more interested in flavor and amazing eating quality than about ultimate productivity.

Oh, and as a reference, here are some varieties (pink and non-pink alike) that I thought had wonderful flavor in the past: Indian Stripe/Cherokee Purple (I lump these together because they have the same flavor to me), Large Pink Bulgarian, Stump of the World, Rutgers, Brandywine (Sudduth), Sungold F1, and Aunt Ruby's German Green.

Thanks in advance for any help or guidance you can offer!

[nctomatoman]

They are not easy to find, but two of my favorite medium sized pinks are Burpee's Globe and Marvelous. They are both from the mid 1930s, in the 6-8 ounce range, more round than flat, pretty smooth shoulders and quite delicious. Victory sells Burpee's Globe - I got Marvelous (and Burpee's Globe, for that matter) from the USDA. I've got Marvelous from 2001 - PM me your address if you want to give it a try next year.

Just looking through my lists - a few others - Burgundy Traveler, Gregori's Altai, Monarch, New King (Victory sells both Monarch and New King as well, and the other two are easier to find)

[Sun City Linda]

I grew Goosecreek from Gleckers Seeds for the first time this year. It was mid size, deep pink, productive and wonderful! Growing Eva Purple Ball, a bit larger than 4 oz, maybe 5-6. Taste seems good but not great. I like pinks also. Like Prudens Purple quite well, large but not overly so. Linda

[cottonpicker]

I recommend: Kosovo, Earl's Faux and Bychye Serdtse Rozovoe.

LarryD

[b54red]

You might want to try Hege German Pink. I've grown it twice and both times it was a medium size tomato with excellent flavor. Stump of the World and Limbaugh's Legacy are both excellent but the first few are larger than what you are looking for but later on many of the fruits fall into the medium range.

[Timbotide]

Originally Posted by b54red

You might want to try Hege German Pink. I've grown it twice and both times it was a medium size tomato with excellent flavor. Stump of the World and Limbaugh's Legacy are both excellent but the first few are larger than what you are looking for but later on many of the fruits fall into the medium range.

I too say Limbaugh's Legacy is an excellent choice. My plant is still setting fruit in this intense heat.

[swamper]

Chianti Rose and Dora are 2 favorites here. Others that are outstanding are Prudens Purple, Stump of the World, and Polish.

[Barbee]

From your list, I like Dora a lot.
Not from your list, I like Earl's Faux and Goose Creek as a smaller pink with excellent flavor.

[barkeater]

Momotaro and Odoriko - both hybrids but the best 6 ounce pinks I can think of.

[platys]

This isn't a heirloom, per se, but it is OP. I really like Arkansas Traveler the year I grew it. I stuck it in some soil that even weeds wouldn't grow in, and it did awesomely well. I had great yield and they tasted great.

[Ispahan]

First of all, thank you so much to those who have responded! I have a lot of wonderful new varieties to research.

Because I had the day off today, I went to one of the larger farmers markets here in Chicago (Green City Market) and was able to see fruits of many different pink varieties. This is a very sad tomato year overall in these parts, with the majority of tomatoes catfaced, blemished, sunscalded and tasting pretty bland and watered down. They had tasting samples of many different varieties, but you know things are in bad shape when Cherokee Purple (usually one of my favorites) tasted exactly like Brandywine and Green Zebra! Of course, the Sungolds they were offering were not even half as tasty as those from my garden, so the lack of taste could partly be culture-related as well.

*But* in spite of the flavor disappointments, I was able to sample several pinks like Marianna's Peace, Crnkovic Yugoslavian, Aunt Ginny's Purple, Brandywine (pink but unknown strain), Caspian Pink, and Eva Purple Ball. Flavor was shockingly bland and watery for all except one: Eva Purple Ball! It was by far the tastiest and zippiest tomato I have had this year, with a wonderful, rich sweetness on the surface and a good tomato tang underneath.

Eva Purple Ball is still little smaller than I would like, but I might have to move it up just a notch on my list! :-)

[jwr6404]

Check out Pale Perfect Purple aka Purple Perfect. It's very tasty and highly productive as well. Sandhill and Tomato Growers Supply has seeds available.

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by jwr6404

Check out Pale Perfect Purple aka Purple Perfect. It's very tasty and highly productive as well. Sandhill and Tomato Growers Supply has seeds available.

Just so you know that Pale Perfect Purple, which is the correct name, was bred by Tad Smith and is not an heirloom variety. The parents are Ozark Pink and Price's Purple. And it's a good suggstion although the vines are kind of rangy and a couple of times it didn't have the production that I like to see.

I don't know who is getting such small Eva Purple Ball fruits, maybe bad seed, maybe a lousy season, but it should be larger than that and is a real trooper and tastes great. And excellent variety for lots of folks.

Other medium sized pinks that I like very much would include Crnkovic Yugoslavian, Sandul Moldovan, Olena Ukrainian, Soldacki and Wins All, sometimes seen as Winsall.

[Aubergine]

my new favorite rose is Savignac, also called Dufresne.
I also grew Eva's Purple Ball and Rose de Berne, for me, Savignac tastes the best.

[carolyn137]

Ispahan, in your first post you mentioned about not knowing where to get seeds for varieties. A quick way to check that is to go to Tania's wonderful Tomato Data base.

http://t.tatianastomatobase.com:88/wiki/Main_Page

There are pages for over 3,000 varieties and most have pictures and comments from those who have grown the variety. Scroll down on each variety page to see where seeds are sold if indeed there is a place selling them.

I prefer to use the alphabetical method of finding what I want but you'll see from the first main page that there are many other ways of searching for tomatoes, by color, by shape, by country of origin and so much more.

I hope that helps.