Tanja's Top Ten Tomatoes of 2020
*this was first posted on October 10th of 2020.
It is time again for my favourite post of the year… listing my top performing tomatoes according to productivity, taste, and disease resistance. They are all heirlooms and open pollinated types, so are very pretty to look at, too.
We grew 105 tomato plants this year, about 55 different varieties, give or take. Five of them were grown in a raised bed inside the hoophouse, all the rest were out in the potager. Forty were grown for canning purposes only, are all determinate paste tomatoes. I only grow (mainly) heirlooms and (a few) open-pollinated tomatoes, no hybrids, so you will never see any Sungold or Early Girl on my list.
Most years, I really struggle to narrow it down to just 12 tomatoes for this post, so much so, that I often add a few runner up’s, too ; )
This year, the winners were much easier to pick as, sadly, there were so few that really stood out in the crowd. The tomatoes that did make it on this list were so good, totally worthy. Give them a try next year, I think you will be impressed. If they can perform this well in a sad gardening year, imagine what they will do in a good one.
The summer of 2020 was not great for tomatoes, in general. It was cool outside till mid July and then, just a few weeks later, we started getting early rainfalls, too. Rain brings the risk of blight here on the west coast, so is always a bit of a nail biter time.
All of the tomatoes were later to ripen than usual. No early birds for me, not even in the hoop house where they stayed warmer.
Due to the lack of heat, many of the tomatoes lacked that rich depth of flavour that they usually have. They weren’t bland exactly, but certainly not as tasty as usual, either.
That said… we did get tomatoes, lots of tomatoes, and they were all still better tasting than anything on the grocers shelves ; ) So, here are my top picks for the year, and why… not in any particular order...
1. WHITE CHERRY - This is the only actual cherry type tomato that made the list this year. It was not an amazing year for cherries, apparently.
The vines were loaded down with these huge pale yellow cherry tomatoes. The fruits were perfect in every way, no blemishes, no blight, no issues. The vine did not get as big as usual and they ripened much later than usual, but produced very well and were yummy tasting. The size of the cherries blew me away! Like golf balls!
So, here’s the run down… Produced well. Tasted yummy. No issues with the foliage. No BER. No cat-facing. Was just right.
2. LUCKY TIGER - I actually swore I would never grow this bi-colour again. Both the Pink Tiger and the Lucky Tiger are shaped the same, long with a pointy tip, and both are very prone to splitting with any kind of change to their water schedule.
However, here it is, on my top tomatoes list, despite the splitting. These tomatoes, just like the cherries above, were bigger this year than they have ever been before. They are gorgeous to look at, but best of all, they had flavour! Tasted amazing, so sweet and fresh. I have put this one back on my must-grow list as it is beyond incredible. It produced tons of tomatoes on huge vines that actually broke the twine as they were so big and carried so many tomatoes on them. This one knocked my socks off.
So, the run down… Looks pretty. Produces like crazy. Tastes fantastic. No BER. No foliage issues. However, does a fair bit of splitting, even grown under cover in the hoophouse.
3. DWARF PURPLE HEART - Honestly, one of the prettiest looking tomatoes I have ever seen. This is not an heirloom but is an open pollinated tree tomato that grows on a stalky tree-like stem rather than a tall vine. It was amazing to see all the tomatoes that it produced, I still have a large pailful of them in the house right now.
They are a bit tangy rather than being super sweet, with lots of flavour. Toss a bit of salt on them to bring out the flavours even more, just perfect. Needs nothing else. Just this tomato and salt. Done. Am absolutely in love with this tomato.
Here’s the low down… Pretty. Productive. Flavourful. No BER. No foliage issues. Had a wee bit of cat-facing, so made a few tomatoes that were doubled up in size!
4. BLACK KRIM. Thankful that this steadfast tomato was terrific again this year. Lots of tomatoes, the plant was loaded. As you can see from the pic, the tomatoes were a bit wonky due to cat-facing.. making them bigger than ever and more ribbed than they actually are in most years, but truly.. it just worked for them. They were big and juicy and the best. We ate these on sandwiches for the most part this summer, but tossed a few into the oven to roast and add to our pasta sauce.
The low down… Huge. Gorgeous. Productive. Tasty. No BER. No blight or foliage issues, whew! Later than usual. Had cat-facing.
I actually was not sure whether to choose Paul Robeson or Black Krim for this one, they were both great. You cannot go wrong with either variety.
The low down is the same as the others, though this one did tend to get a bit of yellowing foliage now and again this summer.
6. ANANAS NOIR - To tell the truth, I am surprised to see this one on the list. We grow this gorgeous beefsteak tomato every year because I love the flavour. Is mild and sweet with some citrus-y notes, makes a great sandwich and fresh salsa. I am a big fan of beefsteak tomatoes as they are so versatile. Can be used for fresh eating (one slice covers the entire sandwich), for salsas, and also for canning. They are meaty so make a terrific tomato sauce, but are also juicy so great for fresh eating, too.
However, it usually is just okay as a producer so does not often make it onto my favourites list. This year, it was a true keeper. It produced a ton of tomatoes, many of them were humungous as you can see in the pic. They were nigh on 2 pounders but kept their flavour, were sweet with a hint of citrus, produced well despite the craziness of the weather. They produced earlier than usual too, which blew my mind. Truly, you can never go wrong with this beefsteak if you like a nice meaty, yet juicy, tomato.
The low down.. Tasty multi coloured tomato. Big whoppers! Productive. Earlier than usual. Had some wonky foliage, was not the prettiest plant to look at. No BER.
7. PINK BERKELY TIE DYE - Another beefsteak that made it onto the list. This is mind blowing. Rarely do the beefs make such an impact. This year, they were all bit bigger, a bit lumpier and bumpier, but they all seemed to do well. Maybe it is because they are late bloomers in general? They certainly blew most of the regular slicer type tomatoes out of the water this year.
The low down… as with the ones above. This one was all around great. Is pretty with it’s stripes, was productive, and tasted like a tomato should. I love beefsteak type tomatoes. This one is also an open-pollinated type, not an heirloom. Gets higher points for flavour than the well-known and loved Cherokee Purple in farmer’s market tests.
8. GREEN ZEBRA - Here is a slicer that was amazing this year and made it back on the list again. A sweet yet tangy slicer tomato that I have been growing for years. Some years it produces really well, is awesome like this year, and others is just okay.
This year, it produced well and tasted great, of course, so it made the list as it showed up to the game and really did something. I grew 100 tomato plants this year… just showing up to the party and doing something was a big deal as not many did anything worthy of note.
The low down… Gorgeous tomato. Tastes terrific, as always. No BER. This is a reliable tomato. If you have not ever tried it, you really should. I know one would think it is tart because of the colouring, but it is actually one of the sweetest tomatoes that I grow.
9. TRIBES TOBIQUE - Here is another slicer that showed up to the game and hit a home run. This is a new one for me this year, had never grown it before, but it did really well. I am not usually a fan of just regular round red tomatoes, but this one proved itself to be a contender by producing well and semi early. No one was really early this year, but this one was earlier than the rest. Welcome and cannot wait to see how you do next year, in what we hope will be a normal tomato year!
The low down… The determinate plant stayed compact, wish it would have grown bigger, but it produced early-ish and gave me a good amount of tomatoes in spite of that.
10. BLUE BEAUTY - This slicer had to be on the list as it so beautiful tomato with it’s unusual colouring of blue shoulders and red bottoms. It is big, juicy, bold, pretty, and produced well both in the hoophouse and in the garden this year. This one goes on the must grow list for me, as it is not only good looking but well producing, too.
The low down… Pretty tomatoes. Fair sized tomatoes. Juicy. Tasty. Great tomato.
11. OROMA - I chose this paste tomato our of all the pastes just because it is just so darned pretty to look at.
We grow one whole bed with just paste tomatoes annually, for making into tomato sauce or ketchup. The bed holds 40 plants and consists of 4 or 5 different determinate varieties. This year, I grew Roma, Oroma, Martino’s Roma, Heidi, and Romana’s Ukrainian. They were all fine, none were spectacular, so any one of them could have been on this list.
The low down on all the pastes in this bed… they all did okay. We did not get as many tomatoes as usual and they did not have the depth of flavour that they usually have but we did alright. We harvested about 300 lbs of tomatoes all in all and added depth of flavour to our canning with fresh herbs from the garden and by roasting some of the tomatoes with evoo, salt, and pepper first.
An odd thing of note.. the paste tomatoes kept falling off the vines all summer long, sometimes when they were green, sometimes blush, and sometimes red. I picked up the fallen ones daily and laid them out on a table in the potager to finish ripening, which worked well, but … it was odd. They were not under any kind of stress so I figure it was due to the lack of heat.
The plants were not pretty this year; were much smaller than usual and not as deep a green or full of foliage as usual, kind of wispy.
Paste type tomatoes are the most prone tomato type to get Blossom End Rot, but luckily, I did not have hardly any, perhaps a handful out of the hundreds of tomatoes. Then again, I have my beds pretty well figured out by now and am good about keeping to a regular watering schedule with a deep soak every 3rd day. Regular watering is the key to no BER.
12. MYSTERY KEEPER - To round things out, we have this fun tomato! Also sometimes called Clare’s Tomato. This is my first time growing a storage type tomato but I must say that I am hooked. Will be growing this one from now on.
The Mystery Keeper ripens from the inside out, which takes some time to wrap one’s head around. The tomatoes are green or very light pink on the outside but when you cut them open, they are a luscious, juicy ripe red. Amazing! It is a fairly firm tomato and the taste is a bit different to me. Maybe because I have been eating sweet tomatoes for the past few weeks, and this one is rather acidic. Which totally makes sense as it is a keeping kind. I just know it is going to taste great at Christmas time! Fresh from my pantry. Can you stand the awesomeness?
They say that these tomatoes will keep well into the new year, some say even till Easter. I don’t know if I have enough tomatoes to last me that long, but am eager to see how long they do last for me. If you also have this one, make sure to save only unblemished ones. Any bruises, nicks, dents, will begin to rot so eat them up. I will be putting them in a shallow cardboard box in the pantry and let you know how I make out.
The low down… this one was said to be a determinate or a semi-determinate. My plant was huge! I would definitely have said that this is an indeterminate by the size that it grew to. No blemishes or BER, amazing tomato. Acidic tangy flavour, but yummy. Huge tomatoes. all were over a pound .
There you have it, my 2020 favourite tomatoes.
I still have the Mystery Keeper in the hoophouse, leaving it up as long as possible. The rest of the tomatoes have been harvested, cleaned up, eaten, canned, and shared.
I still have two big bowls of tomatoes left for fresh eating, the Keepers and the Purple Hearts.
I sure am hoping you had a semi decent year with your tomatoes, despite the cooler temps. Make note of those that fared well, they would be great ones to save the seeds from or to grow again next year.
If you had a tough year, you are not alone, many others did as well, hang in there…
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