Incorporating Sensory Evaluations into Organic Vegetable Variety Trials

Sensory evaluation is an often overlooked assessment when conducting vegetable variety trials.  Taste testing can help identify varieties with superior flavor, texture and culinary performance, which are important to consumers of fresh market organic produce.  In addition to agronomic field evaluations, growers need sensory data to inform them on consumer preferences.  Criteria to evaluate may include phenotype (i.e. shape, size, color), flavor, sweetness, texture, acidity, astringency, bitterness, culinary performance and many others depending on the species. Both the OREI-funded Northern Organic Vegetable Improvement Collaborative (NOVIC) and Western SARE-funded Integrated Soil and Crop Management for Organic Potato Production (Ospud) have employed sensory evaluations to supplement field performance trial results.  The NOVIC project conducts extensive variety trials of six vegetable crops with the goal of finding those that are well adapted to organic farming systems.  In 2010 and 2011, in conjunction with the NOVIC sweet pepper trials, a panel of chefs and farmers evaluated culinary traits of nine commercially available varieties.  Evaluations included overall appearance, color, flavor, sweetness, texture and overall liking of raw, sautéed and roasted preparations for each entry. The ‘Stocky Red Roaster’ pepper bred by collaborating breeder Frank Morton of Wild Garden Seed was very highly ranked by farmers and chefs for appearance and flavor, and as the result, seed sales for this pepper have increased dramatically.  During the Ospud project (2005-2007), variety taste tests were utilized to evaluate flavor, texture and overall liking of 14 potato varieties.  Two potato varieties were identified to have not only late blight resistance but also superior flavor including 'Jacqueline Lee' (waxy yellow) and 'Defender' (russet); and 'Ama Rosa', a red fingerling breeding line that has since been released, was also identified to have superior flavor and appearance.  Overall, sensory evaluations provided plant breeders, farmers and researchers with desired, but not widely available, qualitative and quantitative data on sensory preferences in vegetable varieties, some of which they were not previously aware of.  Farmers and chefs began to grow and cook with new varieties that were shown to perform well in the field and on the palate.