Taste a Real Tomato

In perfect timing with Garden Month on the Farm, August sees tomatoes at their ripest and most delicious. This year, the Garden is home to around 20 tomato varieties planted by Master Gardener John Coykendall and the Garden team. Guests have visited the Garden Shed throughout the month to taste all the fresh tomato flavor during August’s weekly tastings. Tomatoes found in the 2024 garden include:

• Oxheart
• Gulf State
• Ponderosa
• Cherokee Purple
• Romanian Yellow
• Romanian Red
• Hungarian Orange
• Basinga
• Pineapple
• Napa Chardonnay
• Black Cherry
• Brandywine

At a recent tasting, John recalled a story from Garden Month several years ago. A group of around 30 people were present for a tomato tasting and in the middle of touring the Garden when a discussion broke out about where the best tomatoes come from.

“Somebody pops up and says, ‘Oh, the best tomatoes come from our state,’” John said. “Another lady pops up and says, ‘No, they don’t. We’re famous for ours.’ And then the next thing you know, there were seven or eight people all chiming in, talking about where the best tomatoes came from. Finally, someone turned around and they said, ‘You’re the garden master. Where do the best tomatoes come from?’ I said the best tomatoes beyond any question come from your backyard, your own garden. If you have a good variety to begin with, there’s no better tomato to be had.”

Because most people have only ever tried what John calls the “plastic Styrofoam versions” of tomatoes bought at the store, he says many of his Garden Shed visitors have never truly tasted a real tomato before. Many guests have claimed they don’t like tomatoes, then have a complete change of heart once they try a fresh one at the Farm. Once you try a real tomato straight from the vine, there’s no going back. Even farm animals can taste the difference!

“My good friend was talking about how late one Summer their tomatoes had finished up,” John shared. “He told his wife if she could go down to the store and buy some of those unmentionables, we’ll see if we can fake it this one time. Well, there wasn’t a bit of juice or flavor in those tomatoes. He took them out and threw them over in the hen lot. His chickens will fight over the real tomatoes, but they came and stuck their little beaks up at those store tomatoes and trotted off. There they were six weeks later, still sitting there.”

Real tomatoes come straight from the garden and their fresh flavor simply can’t be beat. Don’t miss out on the unrivaled taste of a garden-grown tomato before their season ends. (And don't forget to make John's specialty – a tomato sandwich.)

Click to learn more about the Garden at Blackberry Farm.