Persimmon: Hanna’s Tomato Tastings 2007
Part of Hanna’s Tomato Tastings 2007
Persimmon is an orange beefsteak. Orange and yellow tomatoes are a hit or miss type of tomato in my opinion. Sometimes they have nice, unique flavor and sometimes they are just watered down versions of red tomatoes.
The description promised that this was the best flavored orange tomato available. And if you can combine good flavor with a unusual colored tomato, you have a wowsa tomato you can serve to guests. Because of this, I was looking forward to trying this tomato.
The description from the company I bought it from reads:
Beautiful, golden-orange tomatoes have one of the best flavors of all the orange tomatoes. Average 5 inches in diameter and between 1 2 lbs., quite meaty with few seeds. Vigorous plants bear well. Indeterminate, 80 days.
The Beauty Pageant:
Size: Good size. The one pictured is probably the largest that I have on the vine and it runs about a pound. The others are running at about 3/4 of a pound.
Shape: Lumpy and squat, as a beefsteak should be. But not so deformed that you can’t make it into nice slices.
The inside: This is golden all the way through. Very moist but the moisture is mostly in the meat, which indicates a juicy but not sloppy tomato. Few seeds and thick chamber walls, so this will be a nice meaty tomato. The gel is medium tightness, so it holds up well when sliced but you don’t feel like you are eating frog eggs.
Texture: Smooth and creamy. This has a nice texture on the tongue.
Tasting:
Off the Vine Tasting: This is a good tomato. Excellent flavor. Full of tomato flavor and tanginess that I like. The gel is tangier than the meat but the meat has more than enough flavor to stand on its own. Apparently, M Sinclair Stevens was also very impressed with this tomato. As I consider her a consummate gardener (I bow to her greatness), I am glad to hear that she thinks highly of this tomato as well.
Sliced and Salted Tasting: Why screw with greatness? Although, admittedly, salt intensifies and sweetens the flavor of this tomato a little. But to tell the truth, this is not a tomato that needs salt to be an exciting taste.
Cooking Thoughts: Yep, this is a serve to the guests tomato. This needs no cooking what so ever. I would proudly serve this sliced and raw as a side dish. This would probably be good for a sauce as well. Few seeds and nice flavor through and through. Not sure how people would react to orange tomato sauce, though.
Growing Notes:
Decent size tomato plant. Not really producing a ton of tomatoes but it does not look like it will be a bad harvest. One note is that this tomato seems a bit more popular with slugs than most of the others. I have had to bring in a few low hanging fruit a little early because I have found slug damage on them.
Will Hanna grow this one again:
Yes. This is a fantastic tomato. This combined with the fact that it would be a show stopper at the table makes it a really nice addition to the garden.
That description is so good that I will have to go out and look for that tomato. I was wondering. What will the seeds do when planted? Do they revert back to a normal small red tomato? Have you ever tested it just to see what happen? Our dry hot climate is not for gardening anything but succulents. I often thought it would be nice and tried to end up with sickly plants and tiny tomatoes. sigh.. nonetheless we enjoy our garden and if you have time please drop by our aloe wilderness blog
This is an heirloom, so it will breed true next year. NIce blog, BTW.
Now I give away my lack of knowledge but what does heirloom mean? I thought it meant “not cultivated”.
Heirloom just means that it has not been tinkered with by modern science and has been around for a few decades. Heirlooms will almost always breed true (providing that they don’t cross pollinate with another variety) while many hybrids will not.
I enjoy reading your tastings. I had kind of given up on yellow tomatoes after a hybrid named Husky Gold and then this year’s heirloom Big Rainbow (neither had any tanginess that I like), but I might just have to make an exception for next year to try this one. I was also interested to hear that your Isis Candy was not a healthy plant, I had been planning on growing that one next year but may just wait on that now.
One of the dozen tomato plants that I’m growing this year is a Persimmon. It’s got the best-looking fruit–I love those bright orange slices arranged on a plate–and is second only in taste to the Cherokee Purple.
Great blog, Hanna!
Kim – I wouldn’t discount the Isis is you don’t have a wilt problem. I have a small garden and I can’t rotate as much as I need to. As a matter of fact, I left a bed fallow this year to solarize to try to get my wilt problem under control. This is definatly not a normal yellow tomato. Worth giving a try.
Barb – Mmmm… Cherokee Purples. Those are one of my favorites, though I have not grown them for a few years. Perhaps I should grow them again next year so I can do a formal asting on them. 🙂
I grew Persimmon also, and really liked it. The creamy texture was very nice indeed. I will probably grow this again, but put netting up around it. I was unable to get one ripe on the vine, (ditto my Hawaiian Pineapple beefsteak) due to varmint activity. Ah, that wonderful feeling of knowing the big tomato you’ve been watching for a few days will be perfect to pick today… and finding half of it hanging there. But yes. And if you like Persimmon, you will probably like Hawaiian Pineapple (not to be confused with regular Pineapple heirloom), and possibly Aunt Ruby’s German Green.
Really love how you take the whole tomato and sliced tomato pix for the tastings, great idea!
I agree the tomato tastes good, but you’ll pay for it later. I had three one night and then blew everyone right out of the house. I had so much gas that I was able to fart the National Anthem as I walked down the stairs!
I grew persimmon tomatoes this year in a relatively cool climate during a cool summer (Zone 5) An amazing number developed to full size on the vine. Even more amazing is that every single one of them (after picking green) turned yellow and while not having the sweetest vine ripened taste, were great for roasting, sauces, etc. A pretty darn great tomato.