Growing Beautiful Tomatoes

Growing tomatoes is easy and fun, and you are almost always guaranteed a successful harvest. In this post I share the three varieties of tomatoes you can grow at home, that will cover all your needs in the kitchen.

Growing tomatoes is perhaps one of the more popular home-garden options whether you are a beginner and wants to some experience, or an avid gardener.

But how strategically are you when planning your tomato garden?

In this post I share the three varieties of tomatoes I am growing and why. These tomatoes are all I need when making my recipes. From soups, salads, sauces and stews, these tomato varieties have all my needs covered 🙂

Costoluto Florentino Tomato

Costoluto Florentino is a gorgeous heirloom variety from Florence (Italy), with beautiful shades of red, distinctively flat and heavily-ribbed. This particular variety is juicy with a high sugar and acidity content.

Uses: costoluto florentino tomatoes are perfect for sandwiches, salads and slicing (as you can see in this Heirloom Tomato Salad and Steak and Potato recipe). But because their high sugar and acidity level, they really shine when slow-roasted or cooked down into a rich sauce.

I absolutely love the versatility of this tomato variety!

Growing: plants are tall and require staking, cages and a good support system. They produce tomatoes over a longer period of time, instead of having one large harvest at once. These are perfect for home gardeners who want their harvest spread out.

Roma Tomatoes

Unlike a slicing tomato, Roma tomatoes are not juicy, and they have thicker and drier flesh, with few seeds and low water content which makes them ideal for sauces and paste.

Roma tomatoes are a hybrid variety developed around 1955, brought into the United States by Italian immigrants, roma tomatoes were bred specifically for their shape, disease resistance, and durability.

Uses: because of the low water content and chewy flesh, roma tomatoes are perfect for paste and sauces (like this Multi-Purpose Tomato Sauce), but they can also be used in salads or in recipes where you don't want excess moisture.

Growing: Roma tomatoes like all tomato plants, need plenty of water, soil rich in organic material and need to be staked up and supported with tomato cages for the best fruit production. 

Romas are more resistant to fusarium and verticillium wilt resistant, which makes them a little more easier to grow than other tomatoes. When tended well they can produce a massive yield, which makes roma tomatoes an excellent choice for home garden.

Sweet 100 (Cherry Tomatoes)

This hybrid tomato plant produces long fruit-bearing stems holding 100 or more very sweet cherry tomatoes. Long clusters produce up to one hundred cherry tomatoes on that stalk alone. The entire plant will produce way more than 100.

Uses: sweet 100 tomatoes are excellent for using fresh in salads (as seen in this Watermelon Feta Salad). They are also versatile enough to be used in stews (this Fish Stew recipe is a great example) or as a raw snack. Whichever methods you prefer, Sweet 100 tomatoes retain their sweet, sugary flavor. 

Growing: it's probably a good idea to use caging or staking as they grow very large. This is not the best variety to grow in container, even though it will produce, you will get a much fruitful harvest if grown in your garden or raised bed.