You're in luck. ;) I've grown Celebrity tomatoes as they were recommended for my zone. Didn't care for them at all. I like a really tangy tomato with strong tomato flavour. I don't even like the sweetness that many seem to go for. However, I recall that Celebrity did get quite large and gave moderate production. Your type of soil will contribute to flavour as well, though I'm not entirely sure the science of it. For example, my aunt and I have grown the same variety of tomato (Sunstart) Â she in Calgary and I in rural Saskatchewan. My Sunstarts are much sweeter than hers. I now prefer a hybrid called Applause, which gets me the strong flavour I like in my particular soil (in other words, take note and stay away from this one if you like bland).

Have fun making your salsas and sauces! Celeb is not a paste tomato, so you'll have to cook your sauce down a little longer, but as long as you don't try to rush it, you'll likely get nice sauce with the appropriate herbs and spices added.

macky 77- Thanks for telling me what I wanted to hear. I know it is all a matter of opinion, but since your taste and my taste in tomatoes seem to be opposite, I think the Celeb variety might be perfect.

Also thanks for the cooking tip. I have been looking at "How to Make Salsa" videos online and reading various recipes. I know I will have more than enough Cilantro since despite my best efforts, my Cilantro re-seeded itself. If my tomato yield is good, I might even try making a spaghetti sauce. I am growing four types of basil. I am very curious how a Lemon and Lime Basil mix together. Hmmm...Lemon Lime Spaghetti sauce?

Grew tons of them for a couple of years. They are very productive and have great disease resistance. But we got away from them, yes, because of the lack of flavor...to each their own, I suppose

You might want to go over to the harvest forum and lookup "annie's salsa" for a very popular fresh/frozen/canning recipe.

It is understandable if people hate eating fresh tomatoes if all they have had are storebought. Even the worst garden grown varieties will be a totally differnt animal. I think that you only have to worry about popular "commercial" varieties being substandard if you really like tomatoes and you compare them to other varieties. I loved my little Toyota Tercel car when I was in college, but it wasn't a Ferrari.

I know there is a huge difference between store bought and home grown tomatoes. When I was young the majority of tomatoes my mom served were from the garden. It still didn't endear me to tomatoes any. My husband had the same experience. His mom grew tomatoes, but it didn't make him like them.

I will say that I hated peas and beans when I was young until I got some fresh out of the garden. What a difference in taste!

My husband's younger brother is the same way. They were raised on a farm and had lots of fresh garden tomatoes and still grew up not really liking them unless they're processed in some way. For some, it's a texture thing. Bland as Celebrity may be, the texture is still juicy and tender and I'd still take it over any red cardboard orb from the grocery store.

Veggiefaery, you should try some yellow tomato varieties sometime. They're notoriously mild and sweet for a full-sized tomato and they'd make a very pretty salsa, mixed in with the red. There are all sorts, so pick one suitable for your area. Lemon Boy and Taxi are recommended around here and there are numerous cherry varieties, too.

You said you didn't know much about growing tomatoes. The best thing you can do for any tomato is keep the branches and fruit off the ground and keep the soil evenly moist - don't flood it or let it dry out. Good airflow will help prevent many diseases and consistent watering makes calcium in the soil available to the plant, which in turn prevents blossom end rot. Tomato growing sometimes seems unnecessarily complex when often times it doesn't have to be. :)

Second the Annie's Salsa recommendation  good stuff! Another tip if you get enough for sauce... remove the seeds (but keep the gel and juices) to prevent your sauce from getting bitter while it simmers. You can get very inexpensive cone-style or plastic crank-type tomato presses that will do for a couple of years, long enough to figure out if you want to invest in a good one. Good luck with the cilantro... I can never get mine to mature in perfect timing with my tomatoes.

As per everyone's recommendation for Annie's Salsa, I went and looked it up. I found literally hundreds of posts on it, almost all the posts were praising the recipe. Does anyone have the actual recipe they wouldn't mind posting.

Thanks

At some point I cut and pasted this from one of those many threads on the harvest forum. I didn't record the author.

The proportions are for safe levels of acid for canning.

===========
Annie's Salsa Ingredient Checklist:
8 cups tomatoes, peeled, chopped and drained
2-1/2 cups onion, chopped
1-1/2 cups green pepper, chopped
3 - 5 jalapenos, chopped
>Any combination of green, red, whatever color peppers is fine. 3-5 jalapenos equates to roughly 1/4 cup, so total peppers cannot exceed 1-3/4 cups.
6 cloves garlic, minced
>Do not increase. But small differences in size of cloves should not matter.
2 teaspoons cumin
2 teaspoons pepper
1/8 cup canning salt
>For taste only. Can be reduced or left out entirely.
1/4 cup fresh cilantro, chopped
>Can be reduced or left out entirely. Do not increase.
1/3 cup sugar
>For taste only. Can be reduced or left out entirely.
1 cup 5% cider vinegar
>Pressure canning is no longer recommended, which specified 1/3 cup vinegar. Must include full 1 cup of vinegar for BWB processing. However, may substitute bottled lemon or lime juice in any proportions according to taste (for example, 1/3 cup vinegar, 1/3 cup lemon juice, 1/3 cup lime juice). Can use any flavor vinegar (white, cider, etc.) as long as acidity is at least 5%.
2 cups (16 oz.) tomato sauce
>For texture only. Can be reduced or left out entirely.
2 cups (16 oz.)tomato paste
>For texture only. Can be reduced or left out entirely.
Mix all ingredients, bring to a boil and boil for 10 minutes. Pour into hot pint jars, seal and process in a hot water canning bath for 15 minutes. Makes about 6 pints.

Celebrity is popular for a good reason. I grow celebrity from time to time when the weather is cooler than norm (did some a few years back, and one this year). When my heirloom and other late variety were really late, the celebrity was always reliable. You are correct that Celeb is not the best flavor for fresh eating. But for salsa, you might like it just fine. It beats store bought, and will definitely outdo canned tomato by the scale of ten.

If they have a sale next time, look for Roma for your sauce. That's also a reliable popular variety great for sauce.