Anyone who has had a discussion with me about gardening in the last 3 years or so has heard me rant about my "supplier" Steve Goto, owner of Goto Nursery growers of the infamous Gotomato. Steve not only grows about 80 different heirloom and hybrid tomatoes that he sells through various nurseries (like Anawalt Lumber where I buy mine) but he also gives lectures and more importantly he has tomato tastings at various places around the LA area. Now I have been salivating over the idea of these tastings since May when I first heard him talk about them at a lecture and am very happy to report that on Saturday the 9th of September I, Liz Camp, attended just such a tasting.



I arrived to find two long tables covered with rows of paper plates containing samples of about 36 different types of tomatoes in all (and fresh salsa made from their tomatoes and 7 or 8 types of chili peppers that the Goto Nursery folks handed out with care as the hottest measured 350,000 Scoville units- that’s hotter than most but not all habaneros). Each plate of samples was marked only with a number so that names could not affect the ratings. We were each given a toothpick, a pencil, and a scorecard and then we shuffled along the tables sampling away. It was interesting to find out that they actually use the results of these tastings to help them determine which tomatoes to grow more or less of next year. The ratings are given on a 1-5 scale- 5 being our favorite and 1 being our least favorite. I decided to approach the scale as if 3 were average and add or subtract points accordingly. Once we had tasted and scored everything we could turn in our ballots and receive a master list telling us the names that corresponded with the numbers. I made sure to mark my scores on my master list to help me decide what to plant next summer. I do have to say that I was disappointed with several of tomatoes I tried and did hand out a fair amount of twos and a few ones but I did give out more threes than anything else. The tomatoes that did receive my top scores were…drum roll please…

With a score of 4: Tomade, Black Plum, Snow White, Evan’s Italian Plum, and Sweet Baby Girl

And the best tomatoes with a score of 5 on the Liz scale: Sungold Cherry (which is actually growing in our backyard right now), Julia Child (My overall favorite!), Suncherry Extra Sweet, and Sunsugar.

It’s interesting (at least to me) that 3 of my top 4 are cherry tomatoes (Julia Child being the only one that is a regular sized tomato). I was disappointed to find out that Steve is not actually selling Julia Child tomato plants and that seedlings or even seeds for this variety are very hard to come by (I did find one site selling the seeds).

I strongly believe that any other year may have yielded higher scores for many of the tomatoes I sampled. I scored the Carmelo tomato a one, the lowest score, because the sample tasted really REALLY bad. I know that this variety can taste better because I’m growing it right now and the ones out of my garden are way better than that pitiful sample. In talking with Steve as well as other backyard gardeners, they all said the same thing that this summer has been the worst tomato growing summer anyone has had in years. The soggy spring followed by a brutally hot summer gave most people scraggly plants with about one quarter the number of tomatoes the were used to getting (anyone who has seen my sad looking plants can tell that I’m in the same boat). I’m convinced that these bad growing conditions had a serious effect on the flavor of some of these tomatoes as well.

Alas the fall is approaching and I am about to try something I’ve never done before… to grow winter tomatoes. Armed with tips from Steve and four varieties of tomatoes native to Siberia (I’m using these because they are used to a shorter, cooler growing season and can set fruit at much lower temperatures that most tomatoes- any early tomato typically grown in the spring like Early Girl would also work) and I am venturing forth into uncharted territory, figuratively speaking of course as this is all actually happening in our back yard.

Here’s hoping for fresh caprese in December!
Liz