Wednesday, September 07, 2011

Differences in tomatoes

So what's the difference between these two tomatoes?  

The one on the left is an heirloom tomato - it's meatier and has fewer seeds spread throughout.  The pink Brandywine really is pink. The Red Beefsteak is more sour than the Brandywine. The one on the right is an Early Girl which is a hybrid tomato and the seeds are all in fancy little pockets and easy to scrape out.  I like the heirloom for slicing and for puree - the seeds can be saved and used next year but it's a little process.  A free process.  I like the Early Girl for salsa because I can get rid of the seeds so easily but it's a really juicy tomato but I prefer to not puree it if I can.  

And I've had some whoppers like this come out of the heirloom plants this year.  The skin is lumpy.  I think it's kinda cool looking. They are great on sandwiches - wish I could eat a sandwich but gluten free bread just isn't calling my name this year.

And this is a Hybrid tomato (Early Girl to be exact) - it's not terribly huge - it's more like the vine ripe tomatoes you see at the grocery store.  The skin is smooth too. My neighbor loves them for canning whole.  The skins slip off easily when tossed in boiling water for 60 seconds and then into icy cold water after that.


2 comments:

Trishelle said...

Holy Moly, you are making me hungry for caprese!! Those are gorgeous!

Rhonda Gales said...

That tomato is huge. I'm going to plant a few heirlooms next season for slicers. I could eat slicers with mayo everyday in the summer, lol.