A "Really Italian Tomato"

[Worth1]

I was looking up Italian tomatoes and found an article about Amy Goldman renaming a tomato.

Worth

[Deborah]

Ha ha, Fusion !

[Deborah]

Amy is clearly a thug and a Philistine !

[kilroyscarnival]

Thanks to this discussion I Googled and found a web site that sells seeds in the US imported from an Italian family business. I am not sure what they have that you couldn't get elsewhere, but the many varieties of broccoli rabe (cima di rapa) were intriguing. Haven't ordered yet as I think I have enough going for a first season. The site is http://www.growitalian.com; does anyone know it? -Ann

[Father'sDaughter]

I discovered Seeds from Italy when it was owned and operated by an older gentleman a few towns away from me. About a year ago he retired and sold the business to the folks on Kansas. I've ordered from them both before and after the business changed hands and have not had any problems. The Franchi seed packs come with more seeds than the average home gardner needs, which will leave you plenty to offer up for trades!

[MikeInOhio]

I vote for San Marzano. You need volcanic soils for the authentic taste.

[kilroyscarnival]

Originally Posted by Father'sDaughter

I discovered Seeds from Italy when it was owned and operated by an older gentleman a few towns away from me. About a year ago he retired and sold the business to the folks on Kansas. I've ordered from them both before and after the business changed hands and have not had any problems. The Franchi seed packs come with more seeds than the average home gardner needs, which will leave you plenty to offer up for trades!

Excellent, thanks! Next year i hope to do a little cluster of veg for Italian favorites. Now all I need are some of those spaghetti trees...

[ddsack]

I buy lettuce seeds from Seeds from Italy, and probably some other things I can't remember now, beans? Yup, lots of seeds in their packs, very good quality and germination.

[lakelady]

I ordered many different and unusual (hard to find in the US, but common for my mother who is from the Napoli region) seeds from Seeds from Italy and the service and quality are great! Tania's site is excellent, both as a resource and supplier too. Several of my seeds listed below came from Tania.

My Italian tomato bed this year consisted of the following:

Franchi Red Pear (excellent tomato, will grow again)
Cuneo Giant Pear (I could almost swear this and Franchi Red Pear are the same, I grew them side by side with no difference in taste or growth habit)
Provenzano (huge impressive heart shaped tomatoes)
San Marzano (grow every year for sauce)
Gildo Pietroboni (excellent and productive)
Palmyra's Northern Italian (very similar to Pantano Romanesco)
Pantano Romanesco (old Roman variety, all purpose, productive)
Belmonte (big productive, but on the mild side for my tastes)
Sicilian Russo Togetta

I also grew out seeds of what I thought were Ingegnoli Gigante Liscio, but they were white not red so growing it again next year to see what 's up with that.

Deborah, send me a pm if you want any seeds of the above, happy to share.

[dokutaaguriin]

Here are a few more possibilities:

Cuore del Drago (While this Italian tomato is translated as Dragon Heart it is not a traditional Heart shaped tomato. It has the strangest shape - blocky at the top and sometimes exhibits dents further down and a protruding blossom end. These very meaty fruits hang in clusters of 4 - 5 and weigh on average 240 - 300 g (8 - 10 oz.).)
Casino (is a large red paste tomato that produces 170-225 g (6-8 oz.) fruit on trusses of up to 6. Pat Cici brought his family heirloom tomato seeds with him when he immigrated to the US as a teenager.)
Casino Chips (is a ‘chip of the ole block’ of Casino, a large red paste tomato. Pat Cici (MI) found it as a sport of Casino and has grown true ever since. This tomato is not a paste but rather produces large cherries that are very juicy with a strong tomato flavour to them.)
Cuor di Bue (is a favourite amongst Calgary’s elderly Italian immigrant community. Many grow only one tomato and this is it- Bull’s Heart. Short stocky plant with wispy foliage, Cuor di Bue will produce up to 900 g (2 lbs.) pink fruit.
Martino's Roma (I do not grow many determinate paste tomatoes but do recommend this variety for sauce making and drying. Very prolific plant with deep green foliage that produces 55 g (2 oz) fruit that hang in clusters of up to 6.) This one sounds Italian...

Hope this helps,
Jeff

[carolyn137]

Jeff, below is Tania's page for Martino's Roma and you'll see that it is Italian in origin and I got seeds from Maureen in 1991 and have been growing it off and on since then for seed stock for my SSE listings and may have even offered here it here at TV a few years ago. I love it and it looks like a small Xmas tree with all those red fruits on it.

http://t.tatianastomatobase.com/wiki/Martino%27s_Roma


About Cuore del Drago. I first SSE listed in in the 2012 SSE Yearbook and also offered it here in my 2012 seed offer.

Here's Tania's page for it which is incomplete b/c she doesn't have the background info posted.

http://t.tatianastomatobase.com/wiki/Cuore_Del_Drago

I got the seeds from Denise Salmon in Canada and she said the the source to her said the seeds were bought in Italy and were very expensive. Of course I expected a heart one, as in Cuore, b'c that's not what I got. So I contacted her ASAP and she sent a picture showing what I got was what she got, so at least that part worked out.

I had very few seeds to offer here and asked if some who grew it could send some back to me, but I think that request has kind of gone by the wayside as have the other ones I asked for a few seeds back.

I don't have all my data books here but I think I sent you those seeds along with some other new ones for you to trial this past summer.

I've also grown the other three you mention and liked all of them as well.

And I plan to come back in a few days and post about Pantano Romanesco and Borgo Cellano and Provenzano in terms of the backgrounds given here and there which are quite wrong. And yes, I've grown all of them as well.

Someone above posted about Grow Italian and said they knew who runs that website and so do I but I can't remember his last name but his first name is Bill and he's a wonderful man, trust me on that, and we were in touch for many many years but not lately. Great varieties, lots of seeds and excellent service.

Carolyn

[Farmette]

Carolyn:
I grew Cuore del Drago from my plants grown from seeds from your seed offer this year. I'd be happy to send you some. I loved this tomato! Great taste, very meaty, and very few seeds, as you can see from the picture.

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by Farmette

Carolyn:
I grew Cuore del Drago from my plants grown from seeds from your seed offer this year. I'd be happy to send you some. I loved this tomato! Great taste, very meaty, and very few seeds, as you can see from the picture.

Jeff, who posted about it above, just PMed me and asked if I wanted some seeds and I said no and same to you, and here's the reason why.

AS you know I'm dependent on a few folks who do seed production for me, and I don't want to impose on them more than I do in terms of asking for regrows for seed production. If they stick with me i'd rather have them grow out the newest ones I can find.

I told him I'm deleting it from my SSE listings, working on those now, and deleting almost all I had listed and adding just a few new ones, and wouldn't be offering it here in my 2013 seed offer. When i put up the Fall performance thread I'm pretty sure I did mention which ones I'd like a few seeds back on, but would have to confirm that.

Your pictures are great and exactly what I got, thank heavens.

So you might ask why I said I wanted a few seeds back from some varieties, I mean what would I do with them. I think it goes back to all the years I was growing many hundreds of plants and varieties each year and listing hundreds of varieties in the SSE Yearbooks.

Back then I did all my own seed production and if i needed seeds for certain varieties, I just regrew them myself.

maybe I'm just a person who hoards seeds b'c that's the way I'm wired, you tell me.

Carolyn

[Farmette]

Carolyn:
From one seed hoarder to another, I completely understand. Again, I love this tomato. It will always have a home in my garden; in fact I'm planting several next time around.
Glad you liked the pictures!
Chris

[SharonRossy]

I'm going to try Cuore di Bue. I've heard great things about it and I got the seeds from Tatiana - can't wait till spring. BRRR! It's cold out there!

Sharon