I was not getting the gist of the restaurateur’s conversation, then I figured he was talking about SM’s back in Italy? Wow, that’s some interesting stuff. Guess they take their 'mater’s pretty seriously!
Exactly!
I tried to put the Wikipedia link here, but it just would show the first paragraph. Anyway, here’s one excerpt from the article I found pretty interesting:
Because of San Marzano’s premium pricing, there is an ongoing battle against fraudulent product. On November 22, 2010,[citation needed] the Italian carabinieri confiscated 1,470 tons of canned tomatoes worth €1.2 million of improperly labeled product.
San Marzano tomatoes have been designated as the only tomatoes that can be used for Vera Pizza Napoletana (True Neapolitan Pizza)
In Italy, Spain, and Basque region, food is everything, and it is some of the best in the world. France too! Check out that last episode of Anthony Bourdan in Basque on CNN if you have on Demand cable. Fascinating!
Back to tomatoes, one woman on Tomatoville goes all over the world and collects seed. She has introduced many new varieties to members.
Another common sauce tomato are the Costoluto tomatoes. These are not past tomatoes, but have a rigid structure, are the pleated tomatoes.
I have seed to these, I tried them, and they are very good, but I don’t like all the seeds. Sauce only tomatoes, as they are rather bland fresh.
I have the following
Costoluto Di Parma - One of our all time favourites. This stunning old
fashioned heirloom variety from ITALY produces lots of large flat round
shaped bright red tomatoes. The sweet taste and meaty flesh with few
seeds an all round delicious tomato. Tomatoes are flattened globe shaped
and slightly ribbed and can grow to a weight of 10 - 12 oz. Great for
stuffed tomatoes. Very productive for an heirloom variety. good old
fashioned tomato taste either in a salad or perfect for cooking in sauces.
Indeterminate. A large squashed ribbed tomato from Parma in the region of
Emilia -Romagna.A mid-early vigourous plant producing meaty fruits with
few seeds and “old fashioned” flavour. This particular variety has been
around for a long time and highly revered in this food producing region
Purchased from biotom49 on EBay (owns 50 acre certified organic farm)
Costoluto Fiorentino -
Maturity midseason
Growth habit indet.
Leaf type regular
Fruit color red
Fruit shape irregular, ribbed, beefsteak
Fruit size medium
Fruit type slicer
Variety type heirloom
Country Italy
Tomato Costoluto Fiorintino. Large heirloom beefsteak type from Florence.
Red, 12-16 ounces slightly flattened fruit. Outstanding taste. 75-80 days.
Large vigorous Indeterminate plant with good production. This makes a
really nice sauce also, especially the quick cooked type.
Purchashed from Seeds From Italy
Costoluto Genovese -
Maturity midseason
Growth habit indet.
Leaf type regular
Fruit color red
Fruit shape irregular, ribbed, beefsteak
Fruit size medium
Fruit type slicer
Variety type open-pollinated, heirloom
Country Italy
Italian, heat-loving, heirloom tomato that has been enjoyed for many
generations along the Mediterranean. Large, deep-red fruits have a
singularly fluted profile, are deeply ridged, and heavily lobed. Meaty,
full-flavored, slightly tart, and delicious. Because of its scalloped
edges, perfect for use in an arrangement of different colored sliced
tomatoes. Makes a rich and pungent pasta sauce. Thomas Jefferson grew these
and mentions them in 1782 in his State of Virgina Address.
obtained from Nancyruhl at TomatoVille - This is brokenbar strain
brought back from Italy. No germination
Fresh source from Baker Creek Heirloom seeds
Costoluto Genovese sel Valente
Maturity midseason
Growth habit indet.
Leaf type regular
Fruit color red
Fruit shape irregular, ribbed, beefsteak
Fruit size medium
Fruit type slicer
Variety type open-pollinated, heirloom
Country Italy
VF Indeterminate. A vigorous, high producing plant with brilliant red
fruit of 8-10 ounces. Fruit are somewhat flattened and have pronounced
ribs and excellent taste. This selection has resistance to fusarium &
vert. wilts. Also makes a very good sauce. A good mid-season tomato
(75-80 days).
Purchashed from Seeds From Italy
Also one I bought, I forgot about is Cow’s Tit, I have yet to grow out. My wife asked me this year to limit sauce making this year. It takes all day, and I have to do this three or 4 times. Instead she wants me to concentrate on my Honey Do list.
We tried a couple Costoluto Fiorentino plants last year. They didn’t grow as big as the other plants, and didn’t produce a lot. The taste was OK, but all that fluting is a pain if you’re canning. The fruit is medium sized and the plant seemed to be pretty disease resistant. So, it didn’t make the cut this year. It is a very interesting fruit to look at tho.
I’ve read about those NAR tom’s, they are huge fruits, but have a good flavor too. Please keep us updated on how they and the BW Sudduth do. Is that strain a more productive BW, and is it a red fruit?
I understand your frustration about not being able to get stuff planted in the garden. I guess you guys have been hit by both lots of rain and cold weather?
We had horrible BER last year on a lot of our tom’s, especially the Roma types. The bigger beefsteak types didn’t seem to have that problem as much. I imagine it was because our plot was very low in calcium, according to the soil test we had done this year. Plus, the fruit just tasted kinda blech. So, we’ve thrown down lots of lime on a lot of our plots. Something like 200lb on our 2000 sqft plot! Our soil pH is very low, about 5.0 on the plots higher up on our hill. Good for blueberries, not so much for veggies.
I agree Bob, I prefer the pastes especially these bigger ones. Prepping medium sized fruit is a pain. The pastes were the easiest to process, and also had the largest yields.
I still need to evaluate Striped Roman, and Cows Tit.
Keepers for me were
Romeo
Polish Linguisa - late season. These came into production when the others were winding down.
Opalka - Some have reported problems with BER, but I didn’t see any
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Ditto on the Romeo tom’s. If you have any extra seeds, I’d like to try some, if you don’t mind. But, it will have to wait until next year.
I’ll check to see if I have any any extra Striped Roman seeds, if you might wanna do a swap.
Yeah, I have to dig through all my saved seeds, buried from 2 years ago, they are seeds harvested from 2015, but should be fine in 2018. No problem!
I saved plenty of them if I recall correctly.
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LOL, my hand. most are like the smaller ones. I think the big one might be a fused tomato, two tomatoes fused. It produced 2 that big.
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I am growing Polish Linguisa and Romeo from your seeds Drew this year. I’ll make pictures of them as they go along. I also will save seeds in case if somebody wants to grow them.
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Yes, that would be cool. Since I killed many of my plants, at least I can look at some tomatoes!
I’m growing this one based on the Seed Savers Exchange description. Hoping it’s a good one as I’ve had BER issues on other paste tomatoes, especially striped roman – Yeesh!
I’m not sure on the productivity, if I recall from the reading I’d done (and that was last year during the tomato growing season so…) it’s my understanding that the strain was essentially developed by some gal who their family just kept saving the seeds of only the biggest and healthiest Brandwine tomatoes and I think after reading it came clear that a lot of folks felt like it had maybe a slightly better flavor than some other Brandywine’s (?) But it’s classified as a pink, and I’m pretty interested in seeing what it’s all about.
That’s to bad you had problems. Striped Roman is supposed to be a good tomato. I don’t usually have BER issues, maybe a few at most, if any. Not sure why? Just dry here I guess?
OK guys, I have a different problem with my tomato and pepper transplants. Remember when I first moved them to cups, the leaves and branches were curled under? It was determined that they were too wet, so I let them dry out for about a week. The plants seemed to get better, and uncurled.
Like I said, I hadn’t watered them until yesterday. I didn’t drench them like before, just enough to get a decent drink, very little water came out of the drain holes.
However, I’ve noticed over the last few days, that the leaves and branches on a lot of them are now swept upwards in a somewhat tight pattern. Here are a few pics.
Is it this happening because of them getting too dry now? I watered them last night, so they shouldn’t be dry. Also, the leaves are looking a bit pale, so this all be because they need a little fert? I have some liquid fert that I was considering using on some of them to see how they react. Maybe it’s a stress reaction to all that light and little nutes?
I’m planning on planting these out in a couple weeks. Any comments or suggestions? Thanks.
how close are the lights to the tops of the plants?
they are right on top of the plants, i actually had to move the lights up as some leaves were getting singed a bit.
The red/purple tint to the leaves is usually a sign of P deficiency. It may be due to the moisture fluctuation, or possibly a low temp thing, or just the soil needs a bit more P.
Tomatoes are pretty sensitive to moisture levels, especially when small. Recently I thought my toms has gotten some disease because the tips were drooping here and there; turned out that with our warmer temps I just needed to water a bit more (the tips came back a few hours after a watering). I’d try keeping them at a moderate moisture for a while with only a bit of drying and see if that helps. Also hitting them with a small amount of fert which contains P might help too…
Thanks. I won’t wait too long before watering them again. And when I do, I’ll give them a bit of some liquid Medina fert. I figured they’re prob a bit starved for some neuts. The seeds were planted about a month ago, so they prob need it. Next year I’ll go back to my regular soil mix, this one has been a pain.
Next year, I’m doing my seeds in soil not sterile peat. My tomatoes had a bad case of P deficiency and I can only hope they improve now that they’re outside - especially now that it’s gotten warm