Enjoy garden-fresh tomatoes

As summer winds down, the fruits of your labors are coming forth.

It's also time to take stock of your produce to determine which varieties did well and which did not.

I'm often asked, "What are the best tomatoes?" My answer is, "Whatever kind you like."

Take time to taste different varieties. Visit farmers markets and produce stands; ask your neighbors; taste some local favorites.

All summer long, the Utah State University advanced master gardeners at Thanksgiving Point have tended their tomato patch as part of their classwork. This demonstration garden features many different tomatoes grown side by side.

The names of some of these varieties roll off your tongue like the flavorful treats they are — Sweet Million, Celebrity, Big Beef and Golden Mama. Others are less familiar — Elk Heart, Hillbilly Potato Leaf, Jersey Devil, Azoychka and Maskvich.

Kelly Seamons, who directed the Thanksgiving Point tomato garden, cares for her own garden in Orem with her husband and two daughters. She grows tomatoes, corn, soybeans and peppers.

Seamons got her start in gardening from her grandmother, who lived in the western desert. "I would visit her each summer and help her grow tomatoes, squash, onions and other produce that she watered from her well," Seamons said.

As for the Thanksgiving Point project, Seamons said the participants experimented with different soils and trellises. The beds were laid out to include determinate tomatoes — ones that reach a certain height and set all of the fruits at the same time — and indeterminate types that are more productive when grown as staked or trellised plants.

"We have 62 different kinds of tomatoes in the patch. We had hoped for more but had some crop failures. We wanted to compare the different types and have enough varieties to let people see what they might want to try in their own gardens," she said.

One bed features paste tomatoes; another the golden or the striped tomatoes; another has the earliest tomatoes; another is done with a soilless mix; and yet another has tomatoes grown with a living-mulch system.

Some of the selections are old favorites, such as yellow pear and red cherry tomatoes. Tommy Toes is an heirloom indeterminate type with large, flavorful, red fruits and is well worth trying.