One of the great things about gardening is that you get to start all over each spring. Every year we put in our favorite varieties, and we try some new things right next to the tried-and-true performers. 2023 was a unique year, and we had a few more new varieties than normal. Here are the best and worst varieties of the 2023 tomato season.
My favorite tomatoes from the 2023 tomato season
- Lucid Gem – Wow! Love these! This is a smaller beefsteak style tomato. What makes it unique is that it is a yellow tomato with blue shoulders. Absolutely gorgeous. And the flavor is rich, super sweet and perfect on a bagel with cream cheese, or made into a yummy jam.
- Indigo Cherry Drops – a new variety for me, this is a very large cherry with blue shoulders. Very prolific; I was able to pick a basket of these almost every day. With very low acid, these make a beautiful addition to your tomato sauce along with other varieties or all by themselves.
- Gold Medal – I grow this variety every year and it makes the best of the best list every year. Talk about reliable. I love the gorgeous orange-red colors and the reliably huge fruit. Like, super huge. Gold Medal rarely cracks or splits, and the overall plant is hardy and lasts through November in Zone 9b. Low acid and beautiful with burrata mozzarella and a drizzle of balsamic glaze.
- Chef’s Choice – another old reliable for Montegatta Farm, this orange variety is very prolific, and always one of my biggest growers (both in terms of height and the number of fruit on the plant). Easily one of the most prolific producers of any tomato I’ve ever grown.
- Ananas Noir – A super sweet, thin skinned beefsteak variety that is ripe when still green. This is a fantastic tomato for your insta shots to add gorgeous color. Reliable and producing huge fruit, You’ll fall in love for so many reasons. A great burger tomato, but also great for a caprese or a panzanella.
Varieties I May Not Grow Again
- Purple Bumblebee – these are a relatively new variety of stripey cherry tomatoes. Gorgeous, they are round and sometimes slightly elongated. They are very hardy and prolific. They have thicker skins, and do not easily crack. However, my experience is that they are higher in acid which doesn’t go away. As pretty as these are, I prefer Chocolate Sprinkles cherry for the beautiful green stipes and the sweeter flavor.
- Sgt. Pepper – I’m not sure what happened with this variety – none of my plants did very well. The tomatoes are lovely – deeply heart shaped and a rich purple-red with purple-blue sitting atop the tomato like epaulets. But the plants themselves were sickly looking almost the entire season. And not just one or two of them – all were droopy for most of the season and stopped production earlier than my other plants. Plants right next to them were fine, so not a soil or water problem. Despite the sickly looking plants, I did manage to harvest a great number of lovely, meaty tomatoes.
From Montegatta Farm – these were the best and worst varieties of the 2023 tomato season.
