the garden: tomato taste test

I set up a little tomato taste test last night for Tony because I was curious how noticeable the differences in our varieties were. And we had a surprise winner.

The contenders:

• Bonnie Plants Early Girl. This, by far, has been the most prolific variety in my garden. I've been getting tomatoes on these since June. I bought a four-pack at Home Depot for $1.68, and all four have been good producers. I have two in the ground, one in a large pot, and one in a small pot. I thought I'd get the best tomatoes out of the plants in the ground, but it's actually the plant in the large pot that's doing the best. 
• Bonnie Plants Rutgers Heirloom. I got these in a four-pack at Home Depot for 84 cents. I gave two to Mike and Jen, and I planted one of the remaining plants in a large pot and the other in the ground. I haven't had much luck with these, though. I've only gotten a handful of these tomatoes all season. 
• Bonnie Plants Husky Cherry Red. This plant was $1.74 at Home Depot, and I've been pleased with how many tomatoes I've gotten. It's in a medium pot. 
• Burpee Snack Attack Hybrid Cherry Tomato. My dad started this one from seed, and it's been another good producer. The tomatoes are larger than the Bonnie cherry tomato. Also in a medium pot.  
• Bonnie Plants Better Boy. I spent 49 cents on this plant at Home Depot. And I have gotten zero tomatoes out of it. It's right in the ground. Clearly I'm doing something wrong. I'm earning my gardener ranking of 4 out of 10 on this one. 

So that leaves us with four tomatoes in our taste test. I cut three slices of each kind of tomato for a total of 12 bites.

Then I had Tony -- with his eyes closed, no peeking -- rank each bite on a scale of 1 to 10. So the highest total score a tomato could earn was 30. (This scoring system is more complicated than Olympics gymnastics, isn't it?)

And the winner is ....

SNACK ATTACK!

It got 9, 9 and 8 points for a total of 26 points. Neither of us were expecting a cherry tomato to get the highest marks.

Runner up was the early girl. She earned 10, 7 and 8 for a total of 25.

The heirloom got a 8.5, 6 and 7, totaling 21.5.

And he gave the Bonnie cherry tomato a 5, 5 and 3 for 13 total points. Ouch.

<3

Bonus: I used the leftovers for a cucumber-and-tomato salad. Yum yum.