2015 may have been our best tomato tasting yet. Roger’s Gardens has been producing this popular summer event for the last 15 years. We were thrilled to see nearly 300 attendees this year.

By 9 AM tomato enthusiasts were lined up at both entrances, anxious to taste over 1,700 tomatoes and 70 varieties that graced the tasting tables this year. Like fine wine, each guest carefully tasted the tomatoes, then cast their votes of their favorites. Steve Goto, as he has since our first event, supplied the majority of the fruit, but staff and a few customers added tomatoes to the tables as well. Another tradition at this event is April Goto’s famous homemade tomato salsa.

For the third year, well-known Roger’s Gardens edible expert David Rizzo, tasting with peppers from his own garden, plus a few extras. Almost twenty varieties, including some real hotties, like two different Habaneros, Scotch Bonnets and Ghost Peppers. Luckily, nobody needed the paramedics.

Every year we encourage customers to bring in their tomato harvest for tasting and in return they receive a 20% discount of nursery products and get to be first in line for the tomato tasting. A big”thank you” to our customers who brought in tomatoes and/or peppers for the tasting this year. We greatly appreciate your support and participation.

Start planning now for your 2016 tomato season. And be sure to visit us again in March 2016 during ToMaToMania!, our largest gardening event of the year.

We have tabulated the results from the ballots that were cast at this year’s Tomato Tasting. Scroll to the bottom of this article to see the results.

Based on the ballot results, the top three tasting tomatoes were Snow White Cherry, Sungold Cherry and Red Zebra.

Below are the full results:

TASTING BALLOT RESULTS

Name Score # Votes
1 Snow White Cherry 4.51 72
2 Sungold Cherry 4.37 95
3 Red Zebra 4.21 85
4 Black Cherry 4.16 94
5 Japanese Pink Cherry 4.12 68
6 Sweet Baby Girl 4.09 89
7 Mr Green 4.03 53
8 San Francisco Fog 3.92 24
9 Cherry 3.91 11
10 Anna Russian 3.85 81
11 Chocolate 3.83 76
12 Green Stripe 3.82 22
13 Bloody Butcher 3.78 82
14 Neve’s Azorean Red 3.76 58
15 Sunrise Bumble Bee 3.75 40
16 Mr Stripey 3.72 78
17 Berkeley Tie Dye 3.62 82
18 Dixie Golden Giant 3.62 86
19 Brandywine 3.60 86
20 Jetsetter 3.60 88
21 Copia 3.58 74
22 Cuban Yellow Grape 3.57 81
23 Pineapple 3.54 89
24 Hawaiian Pineapple 3.52 87
25 Mango 3.52 84
26 Yellow Pear 3.50 10
27 Grape 3.50 16
28 Cherokee Purple 3.48 85
29 Black Krim 3.39 83
30 Cherokee Chocolate 3.30 81
31 Early Girl 3.28 80
32 Southern Nights 3.27 77
33 Big Zebra 3.25 81
34 Amana Orange 3.19 90
35 Legend 3.16 78
36 Black From Tula 3.15 79
37 No Name Cherry 3.13 8
38 White Wonder 3.11 81
39 Nyagous 3.06 79
40 Green Zebra 3.04 75
41 Porkchop 3.02 62
42 Glacier 2.94 67
43 Fantastic 2.93 76
44 Carbon 2.92 71
45 Super Sioux 2.92 72
46 Green Crush 2.91 78
47 Kellogg’s Breakfast 2.91 81
48 Big Rainbow 2.86 73
49 Cherokee Green 2.82 21
50 Rutgers 2.81 72
51 Nebraska Wedding 2.80 75
52 Siletz 2.76 76
53 Persimmon 2.75 79
54 Marveled Stripe 2.73 71
55 Homestead 2.69 69
56 Siberia 2.68 71
57 Indigo Rose 2.65 65
58 Gold Medal 2.59 80
59 Super Sweet 100 2.53 17
60 Costoluto Genovese 2.49 75
61 Stupice 2.48 66
62 Momotaro Gold 2.42 19
63 Andrew Rahart 2.20 64
64 Baby Boomer        N/A 2
65 Cheryl      N/A 1
66 Zebra      N/A 2
67 Purple Plum      N/A 2

To view the results for 2014 click here.

To view the reuslts for 2013 click here.