Anyone go to SSE tomato tasting

[Minnesota Mato]

just got back from seed savers exchange heirloom tomato tasting and enjoyed it as always. I feel lucky to be just 45mins away. my three favorites there were amish destors, lemon drop and Black Sea Man. I have always been a fan of black tomatoes but this was my wifes first time there and even she liked the black sea man best of all. Thats saying alot because she taste with her eyes as much as her tongue. lol
It was a good day, even my boys found plants that interested them and I had to buy alot of seeds.

[fortyonenorth]

Never been there, but it sounds like a good time. Glad you enjoyed yourselves. I'm not familiar with amish destors - what's it like?

[nctomatoman]

Hey! I am still in Iowa - it was a really good day, though I didn't get to the tasting until about 2:30 (did a talk on heirloom at noon, then again at 3). Destor's Amish is apparently a new tomato in their collection, a new one on me - I don't yet know the history. It is a large pink oblate tomato, and I agree, it was very good. I can't remember everything I tasted (I was a bit tired by then, and also many of the tomatoes were near running out) - but I was delighted to find that Cherokee Purple was one of my favorites...as well as Tasty Evergreen!

[Minnesota Mato]

I really wanted to hear you talk about heirlooms but could'nt make it work. I brought my three young children with me and would have never gotten to sit down. There were alot of people there and I was glad to see the rain held off until it was over. I was just going to try to look up Destor's amish because we did'nt even get to see what it looked like, did'nt know if it was big or small or anything. I have grown both cherokee purple and tasty evergreen before and I love them both. Several years ago I would bring tomato samples into work to let everyone try differant kinds and everyone vote the tasty evergreen the best. Have a safe trip back home!

craig

[fortyonenorth]

The blurb about the tasting and Amish Destor's (Destor's Amish?) on the SSE website is here: http://info.seedsavers.org/results-in/

From what I can discern, it was given to Larry Pierce by an Amish Lady whose family had grown it for several generations. A quick look in the SSE Yearbook didn't turn-up Destor's but I think I read somewhere that Larry is a seed grower for Baker Creek. His website, which lists Destor's for sale, is here: http://www.piercenaturalfarm.com/seeds.html

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by fortyonenorth

The blurb about the tasting and Amish Destor's (Destor's Amish?) on the SSE website is here: http://info.seedsavers.org/results-in/

From what I can discern, it was given to Larry Pierce by an Amish Lady whose family had grown it for several generations. A quick look in the SSE Yearbook didn't turn-up Destor's but I think I read somewhere that Larry is a seed grower for Baker Creek. His website, which lists Destor's for sale, is here: http://www.piercenaturalfarm.com/seeds.html

Thanks for the SSE link b'c I never go to the home page. Craig had a list of most of the varieties that were to be presented at the taste testing and I shared with him what I thought the wrong info was from those tomatoes, most of which were from the Public catalog. But I haven' talked to him to him yet to see if he talked about my biggest beefs, and that's not a rif on Big Beef.

Yes, from Larry's short list I do see the Destor one but have to wonder how it might compare with so many other large pink beefsteak varieties such as Todd County Amish and Amish Potato leaf, seeds for which I got from Doug in MN who posts here at Tville.

it would be fun to grow out several of the large, well I don't know here b'c one of the references about it says pink/red and one says pink and I bet no one looked at the epidermis to be sure.

And yes, from what larry lists it seems like he is a grower for Baker Creek.

I also thought the price for the Destor one was more than a bit high, and not that's I'm cheap, and not that I'm going to order it, but it really isn't competetive with tomato seed prices elsewhere.

Oh well, I've found that if someone really wants something they'll pay the price asked.

[nctomatoman]

That was the first tomato I tasted, and it was a good one - but the tasting pieces were made very small (of all of the varieties due to supply constraints) - I also tweeted the SSE because the blurb described it as a large red (I saw the fruit uncut, it was clearly pink).

I continue to be amazed at confusion between red and pink varieties!

To me, it was no better/different than any of many other really good pinks, such as Brandywine or Stump of the World. But I think being the first tomato tasted, it made quite an impression with people - and there were quite a few to follow that were not at their best.