Crazy Cherry: Hanna’s Tomato Tastings 2006

Part of Hanna’s Tomato Tastings 2006

Sadly, I have yet another mislabeled plant (This is not bode well for me buying from this company again). I can’t even pretend with this one, that this is what I ordered. This tomato is so far off from the the description of what I ordered that I have no choice but to take a guess at what this tomato is.

Fortunately, there is only one tomato on this supplier’s entire catalog of tomatoes that fit the description of this tomato. I am going to say that this is a Crazy Cherry, rather than a Peacevine as I was suppose to be sent.

On top of this, I want to preface this tasting with the fact that I am not a fan of cherry tomatoes. They tend to be too sweet for my taste. I grow them for two reasons. They are a convenient grazing snack while weeding and I have fond memories of snitching them from my mother’s garden when I was a child. I feel I must give my children the same opportunities for mischief that I had.

The description from the company I bought it from reads:

This plant produces so early and so well in all climates–it’s just crazy. It grows tall, strong vines bearing bountiful clusters of six 3/4″ to 1″, round, red cherry tomatoes in only 60 days from planting out. Sweet, prolific, with a wonderful tangy-sweet balance; Crazy just keeps producing through cold and hot weather.

The Beauty Pageant:

Size: Pretty average for a cherry tomato, just enough to be a mouthful.

Shape: Good round shape.

The inside: The walls are thin on these, but then again, it is hard to find any cherry tomato that isn’t like this.

The seeds are plentiful and the gelatin is loose. The combo of all three make for that eyeball pop that is the real reason kids snitch these from the garden (oh, you know when you where 7 you thought that was cool. You can admit it.)

Texture: Nice texture. Since cherry tomatoes really are more juice than meat, you really can’t go wrong, and if you are going wrong in this department you need to grow a different cherry tomato.

Tasting:

Off the Vine Tasting: A pretty sweet tomato on the initial bite. Skins are very tart and end up leaving a bitter aftertaste in the back of the throat.

Sliced and Salted Tasting: Not unsurprisingly, salt makes this cherry tomato sweeter and helps to cut down on the bitter aftertaste… but that aftertaste still fights its way back to the top.

Cooking Thoughts: What else can you use cherry tomatoes for other than salads and cutesy appetizers? Backyard projectiles, I suppose.

Growing Notes:
Grows like any other cherry I have ever grown. Huge and producing tomatoes as fast as you can eat them. I do have to say that this was the very first tomato ripe in my garden despite the fact that it was one of the last planted.

Will Hanna grow this one again:
No. I am very disappointed in this. Not so much the tomato itself but in that it is so obvious that this is not the tomato I ordered. I was really looking forward to trying the Peacevine as I had heard good things and it would be nice to find a cherry tomato that I really, truly enjoyed.