Comparing Roma Tomatoes

La Roma III versus Heirloom San Marzano

I want to start by saying both were great tomatoes to grow in our garden. In their cases, these tomato plants grew up next to each other on either side of our front door. We had lots of production and most ripened during the growing season.

Ahhh - a picture is worth a thousand words. The picture above shows the size difference between the two kinds of tomatoes. What was really nice about both of these tomatoes is that fully ripened they had a nice ‘crisp’ like texture, as opposed to being ‘squishy’ making them lovely to slice and eat. Additionally, most of the meat in these tomatoes was in the out walls rather than having overly gelatinous innards. While I’m quite certain that garden experts likely have a much better way of describing tomatoes, let me simply end by saying I would definitely grow each of these again!

The Taste Test:

So - drum roll please…tasting the two, side-by-side (and trying a couple of extra ones from each plate), the taste test winner was… La Roma III. These slim little romas seemed to have a little more flavor than their relatives, the heirloom San Marzanos.