Here’s why Jersey tomatoes are so good

Jersey tomatoes are the best. Farmers say that’s due to a combination of our unique soil, climate, locality and a bit of magic.

Bite into a freshly harvested tomato from your local New Jersey farmer this time of year and you’re tasting the best version of what it can be; it’s a crown jewel in the Garden State’s menu of produce.

It follows then that New Jersey consistently ranks in the top ten nationwide in total tomato cultivation — according to the USDA, NJ growers harvested over 56 million pounds of tomatoes last year on 2,400 acres of farmland across the state. 

The proof is in the pudding — or, gravy — but it bears worth asking: Why are Jersey tomatoes so good? Is it the soil, the climate, the freshness or the varieties we grow here?

“It’s all of those things,” says Ed Wengryn, secretary of the New Jersey Department of Agriculture. 

Wengryn, university researchers and North Jersey farmers confirm that we’re not just homers, Jersey tomatoes are actually excellent, there’s a robust market for them and there are opportunities to explore even more, even tastier varieties in the future. 

Freshness matters for Jersey tomatoes

It’s easy to taste the excellence of Jersey tomatoes when you compare them to the lesser-than produce shipped in from out of state outside of our local harvest season. The run-of-the-mill tomato you’ll find at the grocery store was likely picked before it was ripe and is also probably a tough-skinned, less-tasty variety that’s built to handle the long journey from a farm somewhere hundreds of miles away to your local grocer.

“The commercial industry developed varieties that were designed to ship well,” Wengryn says. “Because we’re close to these big markets around here — Philly, New York and New Jersey — [tomatoes] don’t need to be shelf-stable. It’s here, it’s ripe and ready to go. Ripened on the vine always has a better flavor than things that are green and ripen on the shelf.”

Harvey Ort, of Ort Farms in Long Valley, agrees: “Any fruit or vegetable is much better picked ripe off the vine.” 

Ort believes ripening tomatoes on the vine is “80 or 90%” the reason why Jersey tomatoes taste better (to us here in Jersey, at least — Wengryn clarifies that some of our farmers do sell wholesale beyond our region and thus may pack green tomatoes for shipping). Ort conducted a little experiment to prove it on a recent trip to Florida, where he visited a tomato farm that largely sold green tomatoes that would ripen on their long journeys to the consumer. 

“We literally went out and had to scavenge to find a red tomato,” Ort says. “We found two or three tomatoes that were red on the vine and they tasted almost as good as a tomato here.”

But because he knows his tomatoes only have to travel the distance from their farm to their customers’ homes, Ort can wait to pick them until they’re very ripe, which as he and Wengryn say, is a big factor for Jersey tomatoes’ supreme taste.

Climate and soil matter (somewhat) for Jersey tomatoes

It’s not the only factor: our fertile soil helps, even if it’s hard for our local farmers to put a finger on why.

“There has to be something with the soil, I believe,” Ort says. “There are things we can’t explain in the world and that’s one of them.”

“I can’t pinpoint it, but it’s definitely something in the soil,” says Kaitlyn Davis, manager at Chester’s Stony Hill Farms. “I hear people from all over, like they live in other states and they always say that Jersey tomatoes are the best.”

The National Resources Conservation Service, however, can help, clarifying that the magic in our soil comes from its existence in a coastal plain. In parts of the state, we have what’s called Downer soil (officially, and don’t ask why we have this, our state soil), which is well-drained soil formed from acidic, loamy ocean sediment. Downer soil is typical of South Jersey, where Wengryn says most of our tomatoes are grown: “It’s that good, sandy, well-drained soil. Slightly acidic, which helps bring out that tang and that acidic bite that people expect of a tomato and that adds some of that flavor and richness.”

Our soil (mostly in South Jersey) also contains glauconite, or green sand, which has been mined in the past as a natural fertilizer.

Davis, however, says North Jersey growers have a unique advantage — our rocky, hilly terrain up here, she thinks, makes tomatoes here superior even to those in South Jersey.

“People are always saying once they pick our tomatoes they’re so much better than even South Jersey,” she says. “South Jersey is a little more sandy, and they’re soil is maybe not as rich as up here. At our farm it’s like there are tons of rocks. I think the rocks give different nutrients in the soil compared to other states.”

Without getting the Stony Hill Farms’ soil tested, it’s hard to know what exactly is working there, but Central and North Jersey farmland also has beneficial acidic soil and unique minerality that can vary from farm to farm.

“It does vary pretty significantly throughout the state so its it would be hard to statistically prove or scientifically prove that it’s one type of soil over another from north to south,” says Peter Nitzsche, agriculture and natural resources agent at Rutgers’ NJ Agricultural Experiment Station (NJAES). 

Nitsche adds that when it comes to pinpointing the catalyst for our good tomatoes, he, “leans a little more toward variety selection for the site or the soil and that they’re picking varieties that have high sugars and acids and letting them ripen up more than others do.”

One thing that’s a little more consistent statewide is climate, which plays a critical part in growing tomatoes here.

“Warm and humid is sort of what they like for growing conditions. Warm nights help with the ripening. That’s why when we get to August it’s peak season,” says Wengryn. “And then good, regular rainfall, though most growers irrigate. It’s that combination of the perfect kind of humidity and warm temperatures along with the right amount of water and great soils that [have that] slightly acid background.”

Varieties matter for Jersey tomatoes

So because our tomatoes grow well and because they fly off farm stands, we don’t have to worry about how they might hold up a month down the road. The varieties our growers plant are often simply tastier varieties than what you’d find in the store — Nitzsche at NJAES says growers who raise more durable varieties might also, in turn, be planting varieties lower in acid, and thus blander. Ort agrees.

“I think most of us smaller farmers grow the heirloom varieties, but we’re more conscious of flavor,” he says. “There are more varieties that are harder skin and tougher and if you want to pack them and ship them of course you want the hard, rougher skin one because you’re not worrying about it holding up, whereas we’re worrying about that it’s just a solid tomato.”

Ort Farms grows about four varieties of heirlooms, up to eight varieties of cherry tomatoes and more. Davis at Stony Hill Farms, has eight varieties of cherry tomatoes, five heirloom varieties and six globes. They also work with NJAES  to help develop new or rescued cultivars.

“We have the Rutgers 250 and some others,” Davis says. “We also have an extension agent that brought us plants that they can trial in our field. It’s a yellow striped tomato. They give it to different farms to see if it does better on a larger scale other than just in their environment.”

Rutgers rescued the eponymous (and delicious) Rutgers tomato and now that variety is available from plant sellers across the state. The Rutgers 250 that Davis sells was developed by the university by crossing the same parent varieties of the original Rutgers tomato way back in 1934.

Tomato experimentation is in our Jersey DNA. Consider Campbell’s tomato soup — the famous South Jersey product was the result of years of growing different tomato species in Cinnaminson, NJ, until the company found just the right tomato to serve as its base. The Rutgers tomato, revived by NJAES several years ago, was originally developed as part of that program.

More: Jersey Firsts: The stories of innovation in NJ, from blueberries to breweries

Now, Nitzsche says, NJAES is developing a yellow-striped grape tomato, Scarlet Blush, and looking for a company to sell it commercially, but part of their work is making the plant those seeds turn into worth owning.

“One of the challenges of the grape tomatoes is they get very tall and they’re a very large plant, which is a lot of work for farmers and gardeners to stake and tie and maintain,” Nitzsche says. “We’re working to develop a shorter variety that’s maybe more easily adapted by local growers, but [that] still maintains the flavor.”

Ultimately, taste matters for Jersey tomatoes

Taste is subjective, of course, but Jersey tomatoes tend to appeal to many, for a variety of reasons. “Perception can influence flavor,” Nitzsche advises. Davis suggests it’s because our tomatoes taste like home.

“There are a lot of people that love those heirloom tomatoes; brings them back to when they were growing up as kids, especially if they’re older generations, it’s like it tastes like that old-fashioned tomato that their parents might have grown, which doesn’t happen as much anymore,” she says.

But maybe finding a reason they’re so good doesn’t matter. Maybe all that matters is that they taste good to you.

“Like everything else, everybody has their own tastes,” Ort says. “You like your steak well-done, I like it rare; it’s the same thing with tomatoes.”

Wengryn puts the appeal of Jersey tomatoes simply: “There are a million ways to eat them. People should try all of them. From salsa to sauces to sliced white bread with mayo and salt and pepper, everything’s better with a Jersey tomato.”