In Fall 2009, Mother Earth News Magazine conducted an online survey asking their readers to recommend tomato varieties that grow best where they live. More than 2,000 people responded.  Mother Earth News classified tomatoes into the following categories:
  • Slicers: main-crop tomatoes for eating fresh and making sauce
  • Cherries: marble-sized fruits in a rainbow of colors, for eating fresh or drying
  • Paste/Canning: thick-fleshed varieties for canning or drying
  • Really Big Ones: huge fruits that often weigh more than a pound
  • Saladette/Pear: small fruits, great eaten fresh and increasingly popular for drying
  • Non-reds: varieties that ripen to yellow, orange, green, purple, black or striped
Each of these categories were then separated into regions of the country: Midwest, Mid-Atlantic, Southwest, Northeast, North Central & Rockies, Gulf Coast, Interior South, and the Northwest. (For definitions of these regions, visit Mother Earth's original article: Best Tomatoes To Grow Where You Live) High Mowing Organic Seeds carries many of the varieties that were chosen as the best for their region by the readers, and we've put together this chart to highlight these recommendations. Enjoy!

Slicers

[table id=1 /]
  • Brandywine(Midwest, Mid-Atlantic, Southwest, Northeast, North Central & Rockies,Gulf Coast,Interior South, Northwest)
  • Cherokee Purple’ (Midwest, Northeast, North Central & Rockies, Interior South, Northwest)
  • 'Rutgers' (Southwest)

Cherries

[table id=2 /]
  • ‘Black Cherry’ (Midwest, Mid-Atlantic, Southwest, Northeast, North Central & Rockies, Gulf Coast, Interior South, Northwest)
  • ‘Sungold’ (we carry a similar variety, 'Toronjino')  (Midwest, Mid-Atlantic, Southwest, Northeast, North Central & Rockies, Gulf Coast, Northwest)
  • ‘Yellow Pear’ (Southwest, Gulf Coast)

Paste/Canning

[table id=3 /]
  • ‘Roma’ (Midwest, Mid-Atlantic, Southwest, Northeast, North Central & Rockies, Gulf Coast, Interior South, Northwest)
  • Amish Paste(Midwest, Mid-Atlantic, Southwest, Northeast, North Central & Rockies, Gulf Coast, Interior South, Northwest)
  • San Marzano(Midwest, Mid-Atlantic, Southwest, Northeast, North Central & Rockies, Gulf Coast, Interior South, Northwest)
  • Principe Borghese (Northwest)

Really Big Ones

  • Brandywine’ (Midwest, Mid-Atlantic, Southwest, Northeast, North Central & Rockies, Interior South, Northwest)

Saladette/Pear

[table id=4 /]

Non-reds

[table id=5 /]
  • Cherokee Purple(Midwest, Mid-Atlantic, Southwest, Northeast, North Central & Rockies, Gulf Coast, Interior South, Northwest)
  • ‘Green Zebra’ (Midwest, Southwest, Northeast, North Central & Rockies, Interior South, Northwest)
  • ‘Yellow Pear’(Gulf Coast)