Turkish black tomatoes

[pittaro90]

Hi! In these months i'm living in Turke and this morning on bazar i found these black tomatoes...obviousl i'll keep the seeds, anyone knows the varieties?
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/64/p1060329x.jpg/

[bcday]

There are many varieties of black tomatoes and it's impossible to say what variety the ones in the picture are just by looking at them. Can you go back to the bazaar and ask the person who was selling them? And maybe get some more of those tomatoes while you're there -- they look very nice!

[pittaro90]

Hi, i thought about it but the seller was speaking only turkish and i speak it only a little..

[bcday]

We could just go on calling them Turkish Black?

[pittaro90]

I just take a look on google and the smaller seems to be Black Zebra Cherry

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by pittaro90

I just take a look on google and the smaller seems to be Black Zebra Cherry

Many times people post pictures of fruits and ask if someone can identify the variety and that simply isn't possible with very few exceptions. Once a variety has been separated from it's label there's no way of knowing what it is.

For the so called blacks there are well over 200 named varieties known. In addition, Turkey is near the Crimea and that's where it appears that the first black ones first were seen. And of course there could be many unnamed ones being sold as well.

Just to give you an idea of how many black varieties have names, here's a link to Tania's wonderful site which names over 200 of them:

http://t.tatianastomatobase.com:88/w...Black_Tomatoes

[gill_s]

Originally Posted by pittaro90

Hi! In these months i'm living in Turke and this morning on bazar i found these black tomatoes...obviousl i'll keep the seeds, anyone knows the varieties?
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/64/p1060329x.jpg/

Hi
The larger tomatoes inyour photo look very much like Kumato. Kumato is more bronze/green than black. They are sold in markets throughout Europe.
I should be interested to know how the flavour is. If they were Kumato they are best not to become too 'red' in which case they would be very sweet.(Too much so for my taste).

Good luck in the search!

[OneDahlia]

My husband is Turkish. He said the seller probably wouldn't know the name of the tomato, but if you want to try asking, you could try this:

Çeşidi ne?

or

Türü ne?

[pittaro90]

thanks everybody for the help, i think i will simply cal that tomatoes "black tomatoes from Turkey", i tasted someone and they have a typical black tomato taste, not so special..

[kurt]

They look just like the Kumatos that I grow here in South Florida.Some people call it a Russo Bruno.I beleive its name is a market gimmick from a company Sygenta(or something like that)that sells them here in Florida.But whatever it is,the taste is great,and when you grow them they are sweet even in the greener stage of the of the mater.The wife had me grow twice as many as last year.Remember "Man has the last words,YES DEAR!"

[gill_s]

Originally Posted by kurt

They look just like the Kumatos that I grow here in South Florida.Some people call it a Russo Bruno.I beleive its name is a market gimmick from a company Sygenta(or something like that)that sells them here in Florida.But whatever it is,the taste is great,and when you grow them they are sweet even in the greener stage of the of the mater.The wife had me grow twice as many as last year.Remember "Man has the last words,YES DEAR!"

Of course the question everyone will ask is 'Where are Ayash seeds available to buy?' Is it only in Turkey?

[MikeInOhio]

I agree, they look like Kumatos. They could also be small Black Krims.

[Andrey_BY]

As far as I know most of tomato varieties in Turkey are grown commercially and are hybrids. They grow these hybrids for export, local markets and hotels which are very popular among Russian and German tourists. I've been to Turkey once in 2006 with my family but have no chance to find a black tomatoes in Turkish hotel restaurant all-inclusive menu.
Right one look like Kumato tomatoes for me too.

[chancethegardener]

I am Turkish and I neither ate nor saw a black tomato in grocery stores growing up (I also lived in Black Sea region of Turkey). I agree with Carolyn and would say this tomato probably came from beyond Black Sea, Crimea or Russia. On the other hand, now there are lots of specialty food stores/farmer's markets that provide different products.
Unfortunately some old very tasty Turkish varieties are not grown anymore because of hybrids. However, recently something fantastic happened: an entrepreneur found the seeds of an old delicious variety called Ayash (Ayaş in Turkish) local to Ankara the capital, in the wedding chest of an old villager. Then he started producing tomatoes out of those seeds and he has made fruits and seeds available for sale.

edit: I found a Turkish article about this tomato saying that they recently became very popular on the market and refers to the tomato as "kumato" as gill_s pointed out.

[gill_s]

Originally Posted by chancethegardener

I am Turkish and I neither ate nor saw a black tomato in grocery stores growing up (I also lived in Black Sea region of Turkey). I agree with Carolyn and would say this tomato probably came from beyond Black Sea, Crimea or Russia. On the other hand, now there are lots of specialty food stores/farmer's markets that provide different products.
Unfortunately some old very tasty Turkish varieties are not grown anymore because of hybrids. However, recently something fantastic happened: an entrepreneur found the seeds of an old delicious variety called Ayash (Ayaş in Turkish) local to Ankara the capital, in the wedding chest of an old villager. Then he started producing tomatoes out of those seeds and he has made fruits and seeds available for sale.

edit: I found a Turkish article about this tomato saying that they recently became very popular on the market and refers to the tomato as "kumato" as gill_s pointed out.

Sorry my quick reply was to the wrong post! I shall now add it again. Where can Ayash seeds be bought?