Keepers for 2012

[Iva]

Roberta, search no more! Send me a PM with you Addy and I'll send you the seeds

[antichevarieta]

grazie mille
if there are any Italian Heirlooms you want just let me know
by the way have you had to deal with the Stolbur virus?

[Sunsi]

carolyn137

at the stage where I eat dessert first

Not a bad idea at any age--read somewhere that it's better for digestion to eat the dessert first too--forget the reason why but who wants to argue with that anyway.

When forced to list some good paste varieties I usually list:

Heidi
Mama Leone
Martino's Roma
Opalka
Tony's italian

... andof course there are many more.

hah! So many and so little space well, I've been doing a search on each one you listed. The search brought me to another forum with a thread called, "Tony's Italian, Sarnowski's Polish Plum, Prue" which was written last year. The posters there speak quite highly of this Prue although it's described as too juicy and too many seeds for a paste. Opalka is already a permanent part of our garden but it's time to try Heidi, Mama Leone, Martino's Roma and Tony's Italian.....maybe even this Prue. Thank you!

This spring my hubby was forced to make a whole new garden bed because we needed more room. Truthfully, I'd be happy if we only tomatoes but my daughter like sweet corn, husband likes shallots, onions, cukes, celeriac, carrots, celery and a few peppers plants and squash (lost all our squash this year to vine borers ).

Carolyn, must ask you a question--just noticed the Spadaro in the harvest box with the other tomatoes and it looks a different color it really stood out from the bunch--would it have a pinkish/purplish hue to it? Anyway, it's one of the prettiest tomatoes I ever saw--I ate it with a little olive oil and fresh mozerella cheese and basil.



antichevarieta

i am going to try Nyagous, Black Ethiopian and Fioletovyi Kruglyi (hope i spelled that correctly!).

antichevarieta, I have Black Ethiopian on my list for next year so there's not much I can tell you except the description interested me from Marianna's Seeds site, "Tremendously rich and sweet. Fantastic saucer & salad type". I wish I knew more about the black tomatoes to help you out--hopefully, you'll see something you like from Iva's suggestions.

[carolyn137]

Yes, once again I forgot to mention Sarnowski Polish Plum which is a real keeper. I know there are others I've forgetten as well it it's just pastes you're interested in right now, but oh well. Aha, another good one is Wuhib, from a former student of mine from Ethiopia where he found this one, we named it together, in the market in Addas Ababa. And Heidi is from yet another student of mine who brought the seeds back to me from Cameroon in Africa.

I think Prue is a great variety but not a paste at all b'c it is too juicy to be considered a paste and if you don't believe me just listen to Tom Galluci, who posts here as something like tgs or similar and he'll tell you it is NOT a paste and he's the originator of the variety.

Just went back and checked and found that I first listed Spadaro in the 1994 SSE YEarbook and said: 75-85 days, I always wobble on DTM's, large sprawling plant with regular wispy foliage, medium set of 1 # heart shaped fruits, exc taste, Italian heirloom from Joe Huth's barber.

Harris Seeds based in Rochester, NY had a store in the Menands market near where I used to live and Joe managed that store.

So what I remember and what I listed was pink, and as I recall b'c it's been a long time since I last grew it, not a dark pink and no purplish overtones,so there you go. Weather related/mineral soil content slightly altering gene expressions? A couple of possibilities if you're seeing a purplish tint, but I know I didn't see that when I grew it.

Back to the Mortgage Lifter variety for a moment. I have included it on my grow list for a number of years and even purchased seed for it three years ago. I germinated some of the seed three years ago, but all of my garden spaces were filled with more trendy varieties before the Mortgage Lifters were planted. This past spring, I lost most of my seedlings to a late frost and purchased a lot of OP varieties including Mortgage Lifter from a nursery to fill some empty spaces.

The two Mortgage Lifter plants outperformed all of my other varieties in plant size, production, fruit size, and taste. I will toss the remaining purchased seed and grow them every year from saved seed. I have no idea which strain I grew, they were simply labeled "Mortgage Lifter".

Ted