Gardeners near Decorah have three locally selected tomato varieties to investigate after visitors at Seed Savers Exchange’s Heritage Farm sampled and ranked 22 entries during a free tasting on Aug. 22, 2026. Rather than naming one overall winner, participants selected a favorite for each of three common uses: fresh slicing, cooking and snacking.
The category-based results offer home growers a practical starting point for planning a future crop. Someone hoping to make sauce may want a different tomato from a gardener seeking fruit to eat directly from the garden, and the tasting linked each selected variety with its intended use.
The three crowd favorites
- For slicing: Bookie
- For cooking: Rizzi Softball Plum
- For snacking: Chocolate Cherry
Bookie received the most support from participants looking for a tomato for fresh slices. Rizzi Softball Plum led the cooking category, making it a variety for gardeners to research for sauces and other cooked dishes. Chocolate Cherry was the favorite among visitors who preferred eating tomatoes directly from the garden.
The results represent a focused local tasting outcome, not a guarantee that any one variety will perform best in every Decorah-area garden. Growing conditions, recipes and individual preferences can affect both how a tomato grows and how it tastes. The event also introduced visitors to varieties they may not have previously encountered and narrowed the field for gardeners beginning their own research.
How gardeners can follow up
Seed Savers Exchange provides additional information for growers interested in the selected varieties. The event’s follow-up information directed gardeners to research Bookie and Rizzi Softball Plum, while Chocolate Cherry seeds were listed for purchase through Seed Savers Exchange.
The free event was open to tomato lovers of all ages and was part of Seed Savers Exchange’s broader seed-preservation work at Heritage Farm near Decorah. That mission provided the larger context for a gathering centered on sampling, comparing and voting on tomato varieties.
Decorah Bank & Trust Co., Mountain Rose Herbs and Streamworks supported the tasting. Seed Savers Exchange also thanked the participants who sampled the tomatoes, shared their opinions and voted.
For a future planting, the locally selected shortlist is straightforward: Bookie for slicing, Rizzi Softball Plum for cooking and Chocolate Cherry for snacking. The results can help narrow the choices, while the final decision remains with each grower’s garden conditions, recipes and taste preferences.