We've got a lovely lineup of tomatoes for you this year. We're just staring to harvest enough to share around, so keep an eye on your bag as the first ones go out at random to people who like them - for now that's a third to half of you but our supply is improving steadily week by week. We tuck them nestled amongst the soft greens as best we're able, but be gentle on the way home as they are delicate!
I thought I'd share a picture to help you all see the variation from immature to ripe tomatoes. On the top arc you'll see underripe tomatoes. Did you know that the "shoulders" on tomatoes are always the last to ripen? Rather than thinking of maturing from red to green, which really only works with red tomatoes, I like to think of the colour gradient being pale to bright colours when ripe. When unripe, red tomatoes look more orange, black tomatoes are a lighter green shoulder, orange tomatoes are yellow, and pink tomatoes are a pale yellow to green.
Along the bottom of the picture are ripe ones, this year's varieties from left to right include:
Frederick and Rebelski - classic round red tomatoes
Marbonne - beefsteak red with wrinkled top
Marnero - beefsteak black (while called black, it's really more of a deep burgundy colour with dark green shoulders when ripe)
BeOrange - a medium sized orange tomato
Margold - beefsteak pink and yellow marbled (note I didn't have an underripe one for this picture)
Tomimaru Muchoo - pink tomato
Do you like your tomatoes more acidic or more sweet? There are general flavour patterns across tomatoes by colour: blacks being the most acidic. Reds are the classic average acidity. Orange and pink are on the sweeter side with the yellows being the sweetest of all.
If you're taste testing, it's always fun to compare the flavours with our cherry tomatoes which are just starting in the fields.
Our cherry tomatoes this year are Comet (red), Nova (orange, we weren't able to get our sungrazer seed this year but hope to again next year!), Starlight (yellow long slender), and Midnight Pear (black pear shaped).
