Ted, concerning Black tomatoes, have you ever had Paul Robeson? I love love love Black Krim, and have been trying to grow Paul Robeson but my seedlings die off before they get large enough to plant. The bleach water trick has helped noticeably, so maybe I'll have something to try this fall. Anyway, if you'd ever tried Paul Robeson, I'd love to know your thought on flavor (compared to Black Krim). Pictures make them look like they ought to be GRAND.
As for determining flavor in general, even good varieties can be bad sometimes because of the "year" or because of not being perfectly ripe, etc. I had to buy some grocery store "on the vine" tomatoes this spring that were decidedly worse than cardboard, even after sitting on the counter for 4 or 5 days to ripen. I planted some of the seeds just to see if I could pick them at the right instant, and they were actually pretty good. Not heritage good, but not cardboardy.
Dick Sanders
[Of the black tomatoes, only Black Krim, Black From Tula, Indian Stripe; and possibly Carbon have a subtle smokey flavor I like. Some people say they have a salty taste instead of a smokey taste. I can't detect salty flavors in anything until it becomes strongly salty so I would never detect a salty flavor in a tomato. We may also be describing the same flavor two different ways.]
|