Tomato Heaven - The Cherry Tomato Taste Test

Like many things in the potager this year, the tomato growth has been erratic and slow.  Until July, that is, when the blistering temperatures resulted in an eruption of growth and, thankfully, also a huge amount of setting fruit.  I've been removing the lower leaves ever since to keep the air flowing and hope to avoid the blight.  For that reason, I do spray with Bordeaux Mixture (the blue speckles visible on some of the fruit) as I know from experience that otherwise we may lose the lot, possibly before any fruit has ripened.

 I have as usual grown far too many varieties - 13 - but this is a tiny amount compared to what I would like to grow!

Looking down the tomato bed, Gardener's Delight just starting to ripen in the foreground.

 

A nice truss of Green Zebra.

So this year I am growing:

• Gardener's Delight
• Sungold F1
• Black Cherry
• Green Zebra
• Roma
• Prince Borghese
• Ola Polka
• Pendulina (In hanging baskets; they are not happy)
• Marmande
• St Pierre
• Gelbe Konigen
• Cyril's Choice
• Blaby Special

This year we are doing a lunch tomato taste test.  The first three on the list are cherry types and grown to eat war for lunch.  Out frugal lunch is almost always just a couple of slices of bread and butter, tomatoes and cucumber in the summer, and two or three pieces of fruit. 

Even before moving to France I tried to grow a plant or two of Gardener's Delight.  I love the perfect balance of sweet and sharp in the flavour, and they roast to a rich sweetness, too.  They ripen fairly early, fight the blight reasonably well and crop heavily.  Probably my only complaint is a tendency for the skins to split after heavy rain, even when they have been well watered throughout the growing season.

Heavy trusses of Gardener's Delight

GD is such good value for money, too.  My last packet of seeds were just a penny a seed and with 100 seeds in a packet and apparently endless viability, I'll not need to be buying any more for another four or five years!  But I was persuaded by rave reviews on the internet to spend what is a terrifying amount for a frugal gardener on some F1 Sungold seeds.  These were 20p each, so not aexactly a king's ransome, but could get costly if germination is poor.

Bright orange Sungold, ready for picking.

Nowhere near as prolific as the GD, Sungold was nevertheless the first of the cherry type to ripen and, despite a thunderstorm and deluge in the middle of July, the skins have remained whole.

The third of the lunch tomatoes for this year, is Black Cherry, as the name suggests a deep purple cherry type.  The are normally priced at about the same as the GD, although this lot were an impulse purchase, again swayed by positive comments on line.  But at a staggering 9p for 100 seeds ...

Black Cherry

Black Cherry

Nowhere near as prolific or early as the Sungold, despite being planted further down our south-facing slope and therefore in a privileged position, the Black Cherry is still producing steadily.

So, to the taste test.
Sungold - incredibly sweet, so much so that the next time I picked some which were much less ripe.  Still really sweet but with a better level of acidity. 
Black Cherry - sweet and rich flavour, more juicy than the Sungold, but less heavily cropping.  The flavour of these seems to me to be perfect Bloody Mary material.  We may have to buy some Vodka and give that a go!
Gardener's Delight - sweet but acidic and tangy so not overly cloying, and the most juicy with the thinnest skins.  I have to say that they still get my vote.  I just don't like overly sweet tomatoes.

As a frugal gardener, I'll not be spending money on Sungold again.  They just don't float my boat.

I'll be reporting back on the others as they start to fruit.