Tomato Varieties and How to Use Them
There’s nothing like fresh, in-season tomatoes. Luckily, for a few months at least, we can enjoy them right here in Minnesota. Thanks to local farms, including Twin Organics, our produce departments are brimming with tomatoes of all shapes and sizes. Here’s a quick guide on basic tomato varieties and how to best use them in your kitchen.
Cherry and Grape
Bite-sized and bursting with sweet flavor, cherry and grape tomatoes are the heroes of summer salads. They are also popular for container gardening due to their faster growing time and high yields. Leave a bowl of them on the counter for easy snacking. Favorite types of grape and cherry tomatoes include black cherry and sun gold.
Slicer
If you’re grilling burgers or fixing sandwiches, these are the tomatoes to grab. As the name implies, they’re the perfect size and shape for making nice, even slices — not too big but not too small.
Plum
Prized for their high ratio of flesh to seeds and water, plums are the gold standard for making salsa and tomato sauce. These are also the tomatoes used to make paste. That’s what makes them a hit with the canning crowd! Types of plum tomatoes include San Marzano and Amish paste.
Beefsteak
The biggest tomatoes — the kind that win ribbons at the state fair — are the beefsteaks. These hefty fruits (yes, tomato is a fruit) are often less uniform and sometimes look like small red pumpkins. If you love a Caprese salad or tomato sandwich, we recommend grabbing a beefsteak. They’re tougher to grow in the garden due to how long they take to fully grow and how few each plant can yield.
Cocktail
Not a cherry but not a slicer, cocktail tomatoes land somewhere in between. Often sold as vine-on tomatoes, cocktails are fine for just about any use, from salads to sauces to sandwiches. These are great to grow if you have limited space but want to get the most use out of your plant.
Heirloom
Technically any of the above varieties could be an heirloom tomato, it just depends on the seeds. Heirloom plants and veggies come from open-pollinated seeds that haven’t been genetically modified or hybridized for mass production. Many heirloom tomatoes take on unique colors and shapes, leading to specific and mouth-watering flavors. Popular heirloom varieties include Cherokee purple, Brandywine, Black Krim, and Green Zebra, many of which you can buy as locally grown starts at our annual Spring Plant Sale.
Get inspired with these tomato recipes or explore another popular Minnesota veg with our helpful uses for zucchini!