Quote:
Originally Posted by carolyn137
... did you furnish all the tomatoes or did some who attended bring some of their varieties as well?
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Carolyn,
I appreciate the kind words, especially considering the source. And in case it's not obvious, you and your work were major inspirations in giving me the courage to start this little tomato (etc.) business! Friends, neighbors and customers are VERY appreciative of the opportunity to sample so many good varieties. I think we've won a lot of converts away from grocery store tomatoes!
It's a one-man operation - 420 plants of 280 varieties crammed into 1/15th (0.07) of an acre. With the exception of about 25 varieties, I grew them all from seed.
All of the tomatoes presented were those I grew on site (my sister's house). However, one lady brought three beautiful tomatoes to show me (she purchased seedlings in May), including a huge (1.9 lb.) double tomato, similar in shape to the Richardson that's depicted on my home page. But since she did not record the variety names (you of all people know how important that is...), I did not use them in the tasting event.
One of the biggest surprises to me is that only one cherry tomato made the top ten (once upon a time I swore I would never grow tiny tomatoes again...). Otherwise, nearly all of the high scoring tomatoes are ones I really liked this year as well.
As a scientist, you know that sample sizes need to be at least 20 or so to get statistically valid results. Presenting medians rather than means might be more meaningful, since there were wide differences in opinions (one person rated Yellow Pear an enthusiastic "1,000" - go figure).
Anyway, considering the very cool and wet Spring we had here, I feel fortunate that the tomato crop is doing so well. My biggest challenge is getting all the tomatoes sold - it is my first year!
I am curious to know what a few of your surpises are.
Thanks