Sara Black

[Mark0820]

This year was the first year I planted a black tomato, and chose Sara Black based on an article I read in the Washington Post. Sara Black quickly became one of my favorite tomatoes. Not only did I like the taste, it was very meaty (relatively small seed cavity) and stored extremely well for me.

I am looking to expand my list of black tomatoes for next year, and am interested in hearing comparisons of other black tomatoes to Sara Black. Interestingly, I did a search for Sara Black, and haven't found a lot of comments about it on this forum (maybe I overlooked them or didn't look through the posts long enough).

[geeboss]

You might want to try Black Krim and Indian Stripe along with Sara Black in you 2011 garden.

George

[fortyonenorth]

x2 for Black Krim. Haven't grown Sara Black (on my 2011 list) so can't compare directly, but BK is a favorite among the dozen or so "blacks" we've grown - followed by Cherokee Purple. For smaller blacks, try Black Cherry, if you haven't already.

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by Mark0820

This year was the first year I planted a black tomato, and chose Sara Black based on an article I read in the Washington Post. Sara Black quickly became one of my favorite tomatoes. Not only did I like the taste, it was very meaty (relatively small seed cavity) and stored extremely well for me.

I am looking to expand my list of black tomatoes for next year, and am interested in hearing comparisons of other black tomatoes to Sara Black. Interestingly, I did a search for Sara Black, and haven't found a lot of comments about it on this forum (maybe I overlooked them or didn't look through the posts long enough).

I can tell you something about Sara Black, aka known as Schwarze Sarah as expressed in German although it was bred by Joe Bratka in the US and there are sara thises and thatses in different colors and he gave a fictitious history to them saying they were from some relative in Germany.

I knew Joe well and he has no living relatives in Germany.

He did at one time and that's where he got the seeds for Marizol Purple and Marizol Gold, and those are the only two Marizol ones that I think came from Germany. He went on to breed Marizol Red and Marizol Pink as well, and quite a few others.

He also bred Isis Candy and Snowhite and Rabbit and Ghost and quite a few others.

One year I got Joes list and on it he had Purple Brandywine and I said WHAT?????. He represented it as an heirloom but then said he bred it by crossing Brandywine with Marizol Purple. Then he said that if folks wanted heirloom varieties he'd breed them.

So I suggested he call it Marizol Bratka and agreed to that but had already sent out seeds for Purple Brandywine, but the two are identical.

The bottom line is if you like Sara Black, that's fine. I was more disturbed by his misrepresentation of varieties.

And the origin of the word Marizol I think is somewhat interesting and came from a former German student of mine. She said in the Black Forest there is a small village called Maria's Zell, which means' something like Maria's town, and the contraction of that could have been Marizol b'c Joe'
s German relatives were from the Black Forest area.

As to blacks to grow, there are few that I do grow although I've grown many, but I'm not that fond of them. I do like:

Indian Stripe
Cherokee Purple
Black From Tula
Black Cherry
Kazachka, black chedrry

[kath]

This was the 2nd year I grew Sara Black; last year late blight took the plant down in its prime and all I got to taste was one fruit picked very early. This year the competition included: Amazon Chocolate, Arbuznyi, Black Brandywine, Black Bear, Black Krim, Black from Tula, Black Pineapple, Carbon, Cherokee Purple, Chocolate Stripes, Crynkovic Yugoslavian, Dice's Mystery Black, Gary 'O Sena, Indian Stripe, JD's Special C-Tex, Large Barred Boar and Spudakee. Sara Black won't be back as it was in the bottom 1/2 of this group in taste and production - but that's just my 2 cents.

Carolyn,

I will grow my first grouping of Black tomatoes next spring. I have seed for Black From Tula, but left it off my grow list. I am growing most of your other favorite blacks plus Black Krim. I'm curious about your selection of Black From Tula for your list, but not Black Krim. My research found many more positive opinions for Black Krim than Black From Tula. What characteristics did you find in BFT to list it, but not BK?

Thanks

Ted

[Mark0820]

Originally Posted by kath

This was the 2nd year I grew Sara Black; last year late blight took the plant down in its prime and all I got to taste was one fruit picked very early. This year the competition included: Amazon Chocolate, Arbuznyi, Black Brandywine, Black Bear, Black Krim, Black from Tula, Black Pineapple, Carbon, Cherokee Purple, Chocolate Stripes, Crynkovic Yugoslavian, Dice's Mystery Black, Gary 'O Sena, Indian Stripe, JD's Special C-Tex, Large Barred Boar and Spudakee. Sara Black won't be back as it was in the bottom 1/2 of this group in taste and production - but that's just my 2 cents.

Thanks for the input. Of the competition, what would be your top 3 or 4 black tomatoes?

[kath]

Only grew one plant of each variety. Some had to recover from frost damage. Plants were planted closely and pruned to 1-3 vines. Considering taste alone, JD's was my favorite darker tomato this year, but I also liked Black Krim, Cherokee Purple and Arbuznyi a lot. The neighbors loved JD's, CP, AC, Arbuznyi and IS. I have seeds for most of these if you're interested.

[Mark0820]

Originally Posted by carolyn137

I can tell you something about Sara Black, aka known as Schwarze Sarah as expressed in German although it was bred by Joe Bratka in the US and there are sara thises and thatses in different colors and he gave a fictitious history to them saying they were from some relative in Germany.

I knew Joe well and he has no living relatives in Germany.

He did at one time and that's where he got the seeds for Marizol Purple and Marizol Gold, and those are the only two Marizol ones that I think came from Germany. He went on to breed Marizol Red and Marizol Pink as well, and quite a few others.

He also bred Isis Candy and Snowhite and Rabbit and Ghost and quite a few others.

Interesting information! Would that make Sara Black a descendant of Marizol Purple? The name Joe Bratka sounds familiar. I think I have seen it in seed catalogs. I want to say it was associated with Box Car Willie, but would have to look to be certain.

[Mark0820]

Originally Posted by geeboss

You might want to try Black Krim and Indian Stripe along with Sara Black in you 2011 garden.

George

Thanks George! Indian Stripe seems to show up in a lot of discussions.

[carolyn137]

Crynkovic Yugoslavian

****

Kath, by any chance are you an SSE member and receinlty submitted this variety for listing?

I ask b'c Joanne at SSE e-mailed me about someone who had submitted it with that spelling and she knew I was the originator of the variety so I confirmed for her the spelling is Crnkovic Yugoslavian, my seeds from a former faculty member whose name is Yasha Crnkovic.

And if it isn't you can you tell me where it is spelled that way so I can contact them and get it corrected?

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by tedln

Carolyn,

I will grow my first grouping of Black tomatoes next spring. I have seed for Black From Tula, but left it off my grow list. I am growing most of your other favorite blacks plus Black Krim. I'm curious about your selection of Black From Tula for your list, but not Black Krim. My research found many more positive opinions for Black Krim than Black From Tula. What characteristics did you find in BFT to list it, but not BK?

Thanks

Ted

Ted, I divide all so called black tomatoes into two color classes, the pink blacks b'c they have a clear skin, such as Cherokee Purple and Indian Stripe and Black from Tula, and then the red blacks such as Black krim and friends which have a yellow epidermis. I seem to prefer the former.

Nothing really wrong with Black Krim, but for that one I prefer the variety Noire de Crimmee, which was a variety sent to me by a frenchman in 1992 in a huge trade that brought many varieties now well known to the US.

Yes, the translation of the Noire one is the same as Black Krim but I seem to like the taste better.

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by Mark0820

Interesting information! Would that make Sara Black a descendant of Marizol Purple? The name Joe Bratka sounds familiar. I think I have seen it in seed catalogs. I want to say it was associated with Box Car Willie, but would have to look to be certain.

Mark, I have no idea whatsoever what Joe used for the cross that led to Sara Black. Sorry.

I don't know as Joes name is found in seed catalogs but I've written about Joe and several varieties that his father had bred, and named, and Joe found them in glass jars in a tool shed on the property, couldn't germinate any of them and sent them to me to try.

I was able to germinate:

Mule Team
Box Car Wille
Great Divide
Pasture
Red Barn

And there were three more that I couldn't germinate.

I listed all of them in the SSE Yearbook and from there they spread to many seed sites. Few folks grown Red Barn and I think it's one of the best. Pasture is a rampant cherry tomato that can beat kudzu in terms of covering and outhouse/

[kath]

Originally Posted by carolyn137

Crynkovic Yugoslavian

****

Kath, by any chance are you an SSE member and receinlty submitted this variety for listing?

I ask b'c Joanne at SSE e-mailed me about someone who had submitted it with that spelling and she knew I was the originator of the variety so I confirmed for her the spelling is Crnkovic Yugoslavian, my seeds from a former faculty member whose name is Yasha Crnkovic.

And if it isn't you can you tell me where it is spelled that way so I can contact them and get it corrected?

No, that wouldn't be me. Just have a tendency to misspell this one-don't know why. Sorry for the confusion.

[b54red]

Carolyn that just shows how right you are about the differences in taste and the conditions in which tomatoes are grown. I had good luck with Noire de Crimmee but it was very bland for me. It was the only black I grew this year which won't make my list for next year. It may be because it ripened before any of the others when the temperature was still relatively cool. I did notice that the flavor really came out in the blacks when the temperatures were very high.
I agree with many that Black Krim is at or very near the top in flavor. It seemed a little more complex and I did get some with that smokey taste which was a real treat. The biggest drawback is BK splits very easily.
I liked nearly all the blacks but for me Indian Stripe was my favorite over all this year because of the combination of production and disease resistance. I still have two IS plants putting out good tomatoes that were planted in April.