The Ultimate Texas Tomato Guide

The best part about summer in Texas? Biting into a sweet, sun-warmed tomato fresh off the vine. We may grumble about the unrelenting heat, but the blazing sun is what gives our tomatoes such legendary flavor. Whether you’re stacking a beefsteak on a burger, dicing a Roma for salsa, or skewering cherry tomatoes for the grill, there’s no beating a Texas tomato in its prime.

The tomato season can stretch from April to December, but tomato plants are most plentiful in Texas during the summer months after significant spring rains have soaked the soil and the sun has had a chance to turn young tomatoes beautiful shades of red and orange.

Popular Texas Tomatoes

Support Texas farmers by putting locally grown varieties in your grocery basket. You’ll find these beauties at your local farmers market or right in your grocery store.

Smaller tomatoes tend to have sweeter, more concentrated flavor than their bigger cousins. They’re perfect for snacking, tossing into salads, roasting on skewers, or adding whole to pasta dishes and sauces. These are popular picks in Texas:

• Baxter’s Early
• Bush
• Cherry Grande
• Juliet
• Red Cherry
• Small Fry

These big fellas are ideal for slicing onto burgers and sandwiches, grilling whole, or chopping into salsas and sauces. Here are a few Texas-sized tomatoes to try:

• Better Boy
• Big Beef
• Big Box
• Bush Beefsteak
• Carnival
• Celebrity
• Homestead

Local Tastes Better

This is true for many reasons. For starters, fewer miles traveled usually means fresher, more flavorful produce. Plus, buying locally cuts down on chances of bruising, exposure to elements, and transportation emissions. Last but certainly not least, every local purchase supports the hardworking farmers nourishing our great state.

If you’re looking to fill your plate with locally grown tomatoes, there are a few strategies. Two easy wins are shopping at nearby farmers markets or looking for “locally grown” labels at the grocery store. Alternatively, you could make a longer-term commitment by joining a Community Supported Agriculture program, which is sort of like a subscription for fresh local produce. Subscribers purchase a share of a farm’s harvest in advance to regularly receive a bounty of seasonal fruits and veggies throughout the growing season.

But if you’re after the ultimate freshness possible, head straight to a pick-your-own tomato farm.

Pick-Your-Own Tomato Farms

There’s nothing quite like strolling through a sun-kissed tomato patch at a pick-yourown farm. Once you’ve tasted a homegrown tomato still warm from the vine, it’s hard to settle for anything else.

Before you head out to a farm, be sure to call ahead and confirm the farm is open and has tomatoes available to pick. Also inquire if you need to bring your own basket and what forms of payment they accept. Once you’ve figured out the details, consider going earlier in the day for the best selection and easiest picking — and to avoid the heat.

As you might expect, the chances of getting a little dirty at a farm are high, so choose your clothes and shoes accordingly. Depending on the farm and the location of its tomato plants, there might not be much shade while you’re picking. Slather on plenty of sunscreen, wear a hat, and bring water to stay hydrated so you can fully enjoy the experience.

Picking tomatoes is pretty straightforward — you need only to pull the tomato gently off the stem. Tomatoes continue to ripen even after picking, so you can conveniently pick them at any stage. Here are a few hot spots across the state.

Pure Land Farm
7505 County Road 201, McKinney
This is a 100% pick-your-own farm owned by a father-daughter duo. They do not use synthetic pesticides, herbicides, or fertilizers.

WOW U-Pick Farms
7271 Donald Road, Krum
This farm grows organic tomatoes through hydroponics, a nutrient-rich, water-based farming method. You can also pick bell peppers, garlic, potatoes, okra, and yellow and green squash.

Isle Acre Farms
330 N. Bear Creek, Liberty Hill
Becky and Pete Tamez started their farm as a 3,000-square-foot garden in their front yard. Today, it is a 100% chemical-free, you-pick farm for organic produce.

Alford Family Farm
199 Private Road 6181, Emory
This is another farm that is mostly known for berries, but don’t pass on picking tomatoes, pecans, grapes, and more.

Grow Your Own

Want to try your hand at backyard farming? Tomatoes are considered relatively easy plants to grow. Follow these tried-and-true tips to help your plants soak up the sunshine and thrive all season long.

Select VFN varieties. Tomatoes with VFN after their name are especially resistant to three detrimental diseases: fusarium, verticillium wilt, and nematodes.

Plant in raised beds. Tomato plants will drown in heavy showers. Raised beds warm up earlier in the spring, making for a longer fruit-production window.

Enrich the soil. Consider adding organic matter and fertilizer, as most soils are naturally too low in organic matter for healthy tomatoes.

Use mulch. Add it to your beds a few weeks after planting to control weeds and hold moisture.

Feed plants weekly. After the first tomatoes ripen on the plant, feed it weekly with a balanced fertilizer. The next rounds of tomatoes need a little extra push of nutrition.

Plant in direct sun. Tomato plants need a minimum of six hours of sunshine to produce large, tasty fruit.

Use stakes or plant cages. Tomatoes are heavy and will fall to the ground without proper support. When you cage without pruning, you get smaller fruits that develop later. If you stake and remove suckers (the extra shoot or leaves growing between the main stalk and an established branch), you get fewer large fruits earlier.

Soak the soil when it’s warm. It’s critical to water tomato plants regularly, especially during the hot summer months. When the temperature soars, deep soakings will help keep the plants healthy.

Make It a Salsa Garden

Expand your tomato garden to include all the ingredients needed for homemade salsa. Anything grown in the backyard will pack an extra punch of fresh flavor, making your salsa tastier than anything store-bought. You’ll need to plant:

• Tomatoes
• Peppers
• Onions
• Garlic
• Cilantro
• Limes

Note that the best tomato varieties for salsa are firm and fleshy, such as Roma, San Marzano, and Amish Paste. Anything too soft will make your salsa watery. Growing your own limes only works if you live far enough south that cold snaps won’t be a problem or you plant the tree in a pot to bring indoors during colder months.

Here’s to wishing you a fruitful tomato season.

Summer is prime time for planting your fall harvest garden, too. (Hello, homemade pumpkin pie!)