Raw or cooked, tomatoes are a summer delight. But before finishing on the plate, it is still necessary to pamper it. Nicolas Toutain, head gardener at the national tomato conservatory in Montlouis-sur-Loire (Indre-et-Loire) answers our questions.
Where can you find tasty tomatoes?
In the garden. The best way to have good tomatoes is to grow them yourself and respect the seasonality of the product. Eating a tomato before the season (mid-July to the end of October) does not make sense. If you have a balcony, you can plant a few feet of cherry tomatoes in large containers, they will do very well there. There is also the choice of seed or plans which is important. Heirloom tomatoes are tastier. Their yield is lower than F1 hybrid tomatoes, but we find the real taste of tomato.
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The tomato in all its forms. At the National Tomato Conservatory 700 varieties color the paths of the gardens of the Château de la Bourdaisière © DR Conservatoire de la Tomato, Château de la Bourdaisière
How to choose the varieties?
If you have discovered a good variety of tomato, you can save the seeds and sow them the following year. If it is not an F1 hybrid variety, but an old one then you will get the exact same variety. You can also buy your seeds or your plans in garden centers or from seed companies such as Ferme de Sainte-Marthe, Biaugerme, Semailles and Kokopelli. If you see F1, then they are F1 hybrid tomatoes.
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The tomato in all its forms. At the National Tomato Conservatory 700 varieties color the paths of the gardens of the Château de la Bourdaisière © DR Conservatoire de la Tomato, Château de la Bourdaisière
But not everyone has an outdoor space …
In this case, I advise you to go to a small market gardener who favors quality over yield. Tomatoes that can be found in supermarkets are available all year round. These are tomatoes that are picked just ripe and varieties that resist transport. However, it is thanks to the sun of the last few days that the tomato will improve in nutrients and taste. We therefore like to pick it a few moments before preparing it. It is no coincidence that we say that all fruit is better when it is picked directly from the tree!
To read also in the series:
The tomato in all its forms: the culture
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