Micro Tom Tomato: Hanna’s Tomato Tastings 2010

Part of Hanna’s Tomato Tastings 2010

I have talked about Micro Tom Tomatoes before, way, way, way back when this blog was relatively new. I grow them on and off as purely decorative plants, because they are damn cute and weird. I realized this year that I had never done a tasting on them though.

These tomatoes don’t have much of a yield. That’s the consequence of only growing about 5” high. That’s right, look at the picture. That is a quarter nestled in there. That’s as big as they get.

Freak plants tend not to produce good tomatoes. When more time is spent on making a tomato unusual rather than tasty, taste suffers. So, for the record, I am not expecting much.

The description from the company I got it from reads:

Tomato Micro-Tom. The world’s smallest tomato plant. Plant only grows between 6-8 inches in height. Fruit is red and one inch in diameter. Succulent sweet flavor. Excellent for hanging containers, pots, small gardens, or indoor window sill..

The Beauty Pageant:

Size: Roughly the size of marbles — mostly large marbles. The tomatoes actually look almost too large for the plant.

Shape: An off-center round shape. Like they are trying very hard to be round but have tried to get to the front row of a Bieber concert.

Color: Orangish —red.

The inside: Rather thick walls for the size of the tomato and rather large seeds as well. The result is each fruit only has maybe 4-5 seeds in it. Very little gel, and the gel that is there is clinging tight to the few seeds.

Texture: Pretty mealy, and the skin is surprisingly thick.

Tasting:

Off the Vine Tasting: Plain Jane tomato flavor. More tart than sweet, which is surprising for a cherry tomato.

Sliced and Salted Tasting: Salt makes this a much sweeter tomato. Still not quite a cherry tomato sweetness, but much closer.

Cooking Thoughts: I am going to leave this as a “growing for the kids to snitch” tomato. Salad tomato if I could get more than 3 tomatoes off the plant at a time. But since the yield is so low, I would rather just let the kids get them.

Growing Notes:
Teeny, tiny plant. You would not plant this in a traditional veggie garden. It belongs in hanging baskets, window boxes and kids’ gardens. They are a very compact plant, which does cause some fungus issues sometimes.

Will Hanna grow this one again:
Will I grow it again for flavor? No. Will I grow it again because it is a freak of nature? Yes. It will show up in decorative plantings on and off for years to come.