Welcome, Guest

Author Topic: Heirloom roma/paste tomatoes  (Read 6317 times)

Offline skflyfish

  • House Bee
  • **
  • Posts: 283
  • Gender: Male
Heirloom roma/paste tomatoes
« on: March 10, 2011, 09:23:07 am »
What are some of your favorites?

I don't have one yet. I have tried a number of heirloom paste/roma tomatoes and most seem to miss the mark, according to my Italian lady friend.

Last year I switched and grew Johnny's Mariana F1 hybrid and the taste was there, but they were quite susceptible to early blight, despite being a hybrid. Very few of my heirloom tomatoes got early blight last year.

Some of the heirloom varieties I have tried and not been fond of are: Amish Paste, Cuor di Beu, Royal Chico and Mama Leone.

This year I am trying, San Marzano (heirloom) and Granadero (F1), plus a Red Pear Piriform.

A good sauce is paramount to my lady friend, so we are on a mission to find a favorite.  :) I would like it to be an heirloom, so I can save the seeds.

After watching CountryBoy's YouTube channel I am quite interested in the Costoluto Genovese Heirloom Tomato. (hint, hint, wink, wink)  :-D

Thx,

Jay

Offline Countryboy

  • House Bee
  • **
  • Posts: 239
Re: Heirloom roma/paste tomatoes
« Reply #1 on: March 10, 2011, 11:11:43 pm »
Costoluto Genovese is really popular over in Italy.  It makes a tangy paste.

What do you look for in a paste tomato?  Color?  Taste?  How meaty they are?

Most of the sausage tomatoes make good paste.  Try Cream Sausage for a light yellow paste.

Polish Linguisa is a really popular paste tomato also.

After watching CountryBoy's YouTube channel I am quite interested in the Costoluto Genovese Heirloom Tomato. (hint, hint, wink, wink)

*cough* *eBay* *cough*

Offline skflyfish

  • House Bee
  • **
  • Posts: 283
  • Gender: Male
Re: Heirloom roma/paste tomatoes
« Reply #2 on: March 11, 2011, 08:53:42 am »
What I/we look for in a paste tomato? Well meatiness is a given. The less time one has to stand at the pot stirring, the better. Taste is absolutely number one. Color isn't that big a deal. We have made sauce from Striped Germans and it tastes quite good, but any Brandywine type tomato takes forever to boil down.

You probably grow so many tomatoes that you don't make sauce from every one. I guess the best way to find out how good the Costoluto Genovese is for sauce, is to grow it and make some.

Glad to know you are selling the seeds on Ebay. Order placed. I usually buy from Baker Creek or Seed Savers but buying from a fellow beek really works for me.

Jay

What do you look for in a paste tomato?  Color?  Taste?  How meaty they are?

Most of the sausage tomatoes make good paste.  Try Cream Sausage for a light yellow paste.

Polish Linguisa is a really popular paste tomato also.

After watching CountryBoy's YouTube channel I am quite interested in the Costoluto Genovese Heirloom Tomato. (hint, hint, wink, wink)

*cough* *eBay* *cough*

Offline Countryboy

  • House Bee
  • **
  • Posts: 239
Re: Heirloom roma/paste tomatoes
« Reply #3 on: March 11, 2011, 10:40:09 pm »
You probably grow so many tomatoes that you don't make sauce from every one.

You have that right.  These hands fit gardening/farming tools a lot better than they fit kitchen tools.  Just because I know how to cook doesn't mean I have any desire to do it any more than absolutely necessary.

Offline skflyfish

  • House Bee
  • **
  • Posts: 283
  • Gender: Male
Re: Heirloom roma/paste tomatoes
« Reply #4 on: March 12, 2011, 08:45:05 am »
CB,

BTW, your prices on seeds are very fair. Less than other heirloom suppliers, plus I think you have more interesting varieties.

Jay

Offline phil c

  • House Bee
  • **
  • Posts: 60
  • Gender: Male
Re: Heirloom roma/paste tomatoes
« Reply #5 on: March 12, 2011, 09:55:58 am »
A fer years back I tried a variety called OX HEART, it wasnt specificly a paste /roma but it was extremely meaty and cooked down to a very nice paste with a bright not terribly acidic taste.
'It was a large tomato about the size of a softball dark red and heart shaped.
I think I picked up the plants at a farmers market but I'm not sure anymore and I only had them that year. If you can find these give them a try, and let me know i'd like to get them again.
AMC cars, Jeeps, Mineapolis Moline Tractors, Bees, More stuff than I have time to play with

Offline Brian D. Bray

  • Heavenly Beekeeper
  • Heavenly Beekeeper
  • Galactic Bee
  • ********
  • Posts: 7369
  • Gender: Male
  • I really look like this, just ask Cindi.
    • http://spaces.msn.com/thecoonsden
Re: Heirloom roma/paste tomatoes
« Reply #6 on: March 12, 2011, 11:23:52 pm »
Quote
Last year I switched and grew Johnny's Mariana F1 hybrid and the taste was there, but they were quite susceptible to early blight, despite being a hybrid. Very few of my heirloom tomatoes got early blight last year

Can I point out one fact here?  Hybrid by it's very nature is not an heirloom tomato. 
But maybe I'm behind the times.  Heirloom used to me from seeds passed down, Hybrid meant crossing by breeding or splicing.  Now-a-days I guess it has to be designated Organic to be a true heirloom under the old definition. 
Life is a school.  What have you learned?   :brian:      The greatest danger to our society is apathy, vote in every election!

Offline Countryboy

  • House Bee
  • **
  • Posts: 239
Re: Heirloom roma/paste tomatoes
« Reply #7 on: March 12, 2011, 11:52:16 pm »
The oxhearts are very popular.  I have friends who are tomato nuts that say that oxhearts are a big tomato that still has the best small tomato taste.  They like to make paste from their oxhearts, even though oxhearts are more known as a slicing tomato for sandwiches.

An heirloom tomato must grow true to seed to be classified as an heirloom.  It does not need to be organic.  There are well over 1000 different heirloom tomato varieties.

Hybrids are crosses that will not grow true to seed.  (Meaning, if you replant the seed, it won't grow a tomato that looks like the tomato you saved seed from.)

If you cross different tomato strains, and develop a new strain that grows true to seed, it is still classified as an heirloom.  New heirloom varieties are still being developed.

Offline skflyfish

  • House Bee
  • **
  • Posts: 283
  • Gender: Male
Re: Heirloom roma/paste tomatoes
« Reply #8 on: March 13, 2011, 11:30:48 am »
@phil_c,

The Cuor di Beu is an oxheart tomato. Jered Gettle at Baker Creek raved about this tomato, but we found it not meaty enough for sauce and not that tasty. The year I grew it was a bad year for late blight and maybe that affected the taste. It is more a slicing tomato, as CB pointed out, but I preferred my Brandywine over the Cuor di Beu. That doesn't mean other oxhearts are good, but we didn't find it to be the holy grail of tomatoes. I am always willing to try other varieties in my search. Thx!

@Brian

I am sorry if I didn't make myself clear. I am asking for recommendations of heirloom paste/roma tomatoes. I have been looking for a good one for a while and haven't found one we liked, and last year I tried a F1 hybrid (which is not a heirloom as you pointed out) looking for an outstanding roma/paste tomato. Taste wise, it hit the mark, but it is a hybrid. I am still looking for a good heirloom, cause I save my seeds and don't want to be tied to a seed company. (With that said, I have yet to find a fall/winter carrot better than Johnny's Napoli F1 hybrid. These are the candy carrots Eliot Coleman raves about, and rightfully so.)

Offline phil c

  • House Bee
  • **
  • Posts: 60
  • Gender: Male
Re: Heirloom roma/paste tomatoes
« Reply #9 on: March 13, 2011, 03:28:41 pm »
I should have clarified in my earlier post about the Ox Hearts, I havent been able to find the same varity of them since. I have tried a couple of different tomatoes labled as Ox Hearts but they arent the same. I dont know if the one I had was a varietal an heirloom or just a freak!?
It was nealy softball size VERY DARK red and exteamly meaty. Just outstanding all around.
I'll keep tryin, one of these days...
AMC cars, Jeeps, Mineapolis Moline Tractors, Bees, More stuff than I have time to play with

Offline Brian D. Bray

  • Heavenly Beekeeper
  • Heavenly Beekeeper
  • Galactic Bee
  • ********
  • Posts: 7369
  • Gender: Male
  • I really look like this, just ask Cindi.
    • http://spaces.msn.com/thecoonsden
Re: Heirloom roma/paste tomatoes
« Reply #10 on: March 13, 2011, 10:00:06 pm »
Thanks for the clarification Countryboy, now that I think of it, that makes perfect sense with what I know of husbandry.  I should have give the data a little more thought before responding.
Life is a school.  What have you learned?   :brian:      The greatest danger to our society is apathy, vote in every election!

Offline Countryboy

  • House Bee
  • **
  • Posts: 239
Re: Heirloom roma/paste tomatoes
« Reply #11 on: March 14, 2011, 01:15:22 am »
I have tried a couple of different tomatoes labled as Ox Hearts but they arent the same.

There are pink oxhearts, red oxhearts, orange oxhearts, and white oxhearts...maybe more.

It was nealy softball size VERY DARK red and exteamly meaty.


Did it have green shoulders, where it looks like the very top isn't quite ripe?  Check out the Anna Russian tomato - it's considered to be an oxheart type of tomato, and it is a darker red.