Horticulturalist Duncan Cocking, who runs Kyneton-based Leaf, Root & Fruit, invites you to put tomatoes to the test.
A great variety of tomatoes are ripening in my garden. We as a family really only need a small number of plants. However, each year I run a workshop that includes some tomato taste tests, so to ensure there’s an adequate range of tomato flavours, I grow a lot more tomato plants than we need.
One new variety to our garden this summer is Earl of Edgecombe. It produces huge round yellow fruit. The Earl of Edgecombe plant seems fairly resistant to fungal disease and the fruit is tasty. I much prefer cherry tomatoes to large slicing tomatoes, but this one is good for its size.
What influences the flavour of your home-grown tomatoes? Soil quality, irrigation and ripeness can all play a small role. But the most critical aspect of growing tasty tomatoes is choosing the right varieties to grow in the first place.
Seed selection is critical. Now is the best time to taste as many different types of tomatoes as you can and decide which ones you will grow next summer.
You can try Earl of Edgecombe and many other tomato varieties at my workshop on March 16.
Happy tasting!
Duncan
🍅 For more gardening tips see my latest planting guide and garden update.