Planted the seeds 29 January; sliced and ate the ripe tomatoes yesterday, 27 May. Was it worth the wait? Was it worth the daily care? The meticulous watering, calculated fertilizing, careful pruning, diligent tying and trellising, dusting and spraying? Absolutely!
The payoff, hopefully one of many, was a full-flavored Black Krim Caprese Salad and a tase-off between three dark colored, rich and aromatic ripe black slicers.
I’m partial to these big-taste dark slicers, and this year I grew a lot of them, trying out new varieties as well as revisiting the old favorites. Today’s lineup was: Black Krim, Rosella Purple, Black Ethiopian, and Tasmanian Chocolate.
First photo key: (whole tomatoes) 12 o'clock, Black Krim; 3 o'clock, Tasmanian Chocolate; 6 o'clock, Black Ethiopian, 9 o'clock, Rosella Purple.
Second photo key: (sliced tomatoes) top, Black Krim; middle, Tasmanian Chocolate; bottom, Rosella Purple. (I decided the Black Ethiopian would be better after another day or two on the counter, so I didn't cut it.)
All are "meaty" fruits, sweetness and acidity well balanced, all had an almost smoky-salty note (?umami?) and a pleasing texture, skin not too tough, seeds not too large. Frankly, I would be hard pressed to chose between them. Black Krim is my reference standard and one of these others would have to beat it in the production department before it became my favorite.
None-the-less, I am a firm believer in the "don't put all your eggs in one basket" school of seed selection. Sometimes that bulletproof winner that you grow every year just mysteriously stumbles and it's good to have some trustworthy backups on the roster.
by NPKzone8a
3 Comments
Meant to add that if you’ve got a personal favorite dark slicer, please let me hear about it. Cherokee Purple is the one I tried over and over to grow after tasting one at the Farmers market 3 or 4 years ago. But they just don’t work for me here in NE Texas despite trying all the usual hacks and tricks.
Damn those look great. I tried to grow black krim last year but the seeds ended up being some open pollinated garbage and I ended up with a shit ton of mid tomatoes. I’ll run these eventually although I do have great success with my purple cherokees.
Yum.