# My San Marzanos, Romas and Basil (TView)



## alelover (Aug 16, 2010)

The heat down here has really made my plant grow taller than usual this year. The basil is luvvin it.Got a few tomatoes though.


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## mballi3011 (Aug 16, 2010)

Now that's a nice looking garden like mine is smaller then yours but I'm still excited to grow more an more tho. My basil has gone crazy too and the tomatoes were few and far between but there was some and the jalapenos are still going strong.


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## alelover (Aug 17, 2010)

Basil and peppers like the heat.


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## alelover (Sep 2, 2010)

Here are some that I picked. Finally.


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## tender loins (Sep 3, 2010)

Nice pics & maters!

I went out around midnight and picked a couple dozen because rain is forecast later today and thru the weekend and temps dropping from the mid-upper 80's into the 50's tonight with highs in the mid 60's forecast for the weekend. Mostly some of my crosses as well as Opalka, Kalman's Hungarian Pink, Wagner's Italian, Joe's Plum, Speckled Roman, Romeo and Ukrainian Heart. I will try to post some pics in the Show Me thread.

I got a late start again this year and haven't had any ripe beefsteak sized varieties yet, just hearts, paste & plum cooking types and cherries. I picked these cherries yesterday:

Cherokee Green Grape (my own project), Snow White, Yellow Submarine, Rose Quartz Multiflora, Haley's Purple Comet, and Matt's Wild Cherry.

This year I have 56 tomato plants and 44 pepper plants... of the tomatoes, 11 are cherry types.

I will probably wait for the storms later and go on the front porch and try saving seeds from most of them.

P.S. here is Speckled Roman, a VERY PRODUCTIVE San Marzano type that is sweet enough to eat as-is without cooking into sauce, though can be used either way:


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## alelover (Sep 3, 2010)

That is a cool lookin mater. Are they real meaty like a San Marzano? All my cherries died off early accept 1. I have 16 SM and 8 romas left. I save seeds too. The San Marzanos are 4th generation.


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## tender loins (Sep 3, 2010)

They are a little juicier than San Marzano, but that makes them good for other things besides just cooking, like cut up in salads or for salsa. Below is what a professor & tomato connoisseur at UofWGB & U of New Mex, Jeff Nekola, wrote, he's a member of Seed Savers Exchange (SSE.)

_"Probably my best new variety of 1999, and definitely in my top 10 list; 5x3" tapered red fruits with stunning wavy orange stripes; fruits meaty and with excellent flavor; the markings are more distinct than reported by John Swenson in the 1999 Yearbook. [IL SW J 99]  Chance cross of Antique Roman with Banana Legs."_

Most paste types seem bland, especially Roma, but varieties like these listed below have that old fashioned taste of heirlooms. Some you can just SMELL how great just by cutting them open, like Wagner's or Joe's Plum. I alsao grow one that doesn't have a big bold taste but makes up for it in size: Romeo. They get about 5-6 inches by about 3 or more inches and are really solid. Another great one for size & production is Uncle Steve's:








Here are some of my best sauce/salsa varieties, *you can click on the names to see pics:*


Kalman's Hungarian Pink85 DAYS85 days - Indet. Hungarian heirloom imported by Kalman Lajvort of Edison, N.J. 8 oz. Outstanding flavor.Opalka83 DAYS(85)INDET, Wispy but vigorous vines, Good set of 5" long by 3" wide red paste tomatoes. Primarily for paste, but good eating qualities as well. Poland to Amsterdam, NY about 1900.Speckled Roman Probably my best new variety of 1999, and definitely in my top 10 list; 5x3" tapered red fruits with stunning wavy orange stripes; fruits meaty and with excellent flavor; the markings are more distinct than reported by John Swenson in the 1999 Yearbook. IL SW J 99  Chance cross of Antique Roman with Banana Legs.Joe's Plum 85 DAYSHuge red 8-12oz. plums with solid flesh, low seed count and sweet rich flavor. Plants produce lots of fruits and just a few will fill your kitchen basket. From Italy. Indet. ● One of my favorite new varieties of 1998; huge (4x5"), blocky, red, very meaty fruits; great production; great canner. From Charles Daidone, Nutley, NJ, who got seeds from a gardener named Joe who got seeds from Italy.Romeo901-2lb giant paste type tomatoes. A super dense meaty tomato with near zero seeds and little gel. Surpasses all other red Roma varieties for earliness, size uniformity, kitchen value, and disease resistance. Uniform ripening. Flavor seems to richen as the season progresses, by late August good sliced on sandwiches. Makes extra good sauce with little simmering.Wagner's Italian80 DAYSVery rare, dusky pink colored, elongated plum to heart shaped paste tomato. Delicious and sweet, plants are productive. Indet.
 
Brad's Black Heart Brad's Black Heart is the only Black heart shaped tomato I know of. It was a very rare mutant discovery that I found amoungst a field of a thousand Black Krim tomato plants. Indetermant plant produces nice amounts of 1/2-1lb. fruit on a wispy foilage plant. Fruit is of top quality. Rich black tomato flavor with pink dense meaty flesh.Linnie's Oxheart Late season, large orangish-red fruits, flavor & texture is very good. indet, regular leaf, droopy foliage, moderate yield of lovely 12-24 oz. scarlet red oxhearts with outstanding flavor. From Big Red in KY, who got the seeds from a elderly neighbor (Linnie Sears). She's been growing this variety for years, and originally obtained her seeds from one of her friends.Butter And Bull Heart Nice, 3-4" pink, heart-shaped fruits; good flavor; good canner.  Originally from Jenny Virsnieks, a Latvian immigrant now living in Junction City, WI.Nicky Crain75 DAYSGorgeous, blemish-free pink heart-shaped fruits. Extremely prolific for an oxheart variety. This one is listed, as well it should, in the book, “100 Heirloom Tomatoes for the American Garden.” Now that I’ve grown it, I understand why. The taste is exquisite as well, sweet and mild. Very few seeds mean it’s great for sauces too. ● Large, excellently flavored Oxheart with a pronounced scar on the side of most fruit.Slankard's85 DAYSWon BIGGEST TOMATO at the 2009 Buffalo-Niagara Tomato TasteFest. Large pinks, 1lb+, quite productive, RL, fruit mild,meaty. ● Large (4-5"), blocky pink fruits with very few seeds; great flavor; excellent canner.  MI BY M 96 Family heirloom Michael Byrne, Lawton, MI.Herman's Yellow80 DAYSGolden orange heart shaped, indeterminate type, intense but balanced flavor, with hints of citrus; 12-16oz or more.Ukrainian Heart Indet., large pink, 5", round fruit, high shoulders, flat sides, mild flavor, to 1.5 lbs.Wes Reg. leaf wispy plant. Large heart shaped red fruits, great flavor, intense aroma; a Great tomato
 
Ernie's Plump  My favorite Italian saucer since I first grew it, 3 years ago.. Cooks down to the the reddest, richest, flavorful sauce ever! 8 -12oz. fruits are a most unique shape: "plump" double pears with a tiny blossom scar. Rich beyond words, I ate plenty this year straight out of hand. Extreme producer.
 
Horvath (pic #2)  Large red plum type fruits 4-6" ● Standard pepper-shaped paste tomato with meaty, almost seedless 4" long fruits; good canner. Family heirloom of the Horvath Family, Edison, NJ, seed originally from an area in Italy on the Adriatic Sea.Uncle Steve's (pic above)  Italian plum from rxkeith's great uncle steve messina, 6oz and up plum type tomato, nice and meaty, great for cooking, and sauce, juicy enough to eat fresh too. a good tomato.
 
I included a bunch of oxheart types too because you can cook them into sauce, cube or dice for salsa, or slice for sammies. Most of them have few seeds in them.

Sorry, I'm not that good with HTML webpage tables and the formatting got chopped off on the right because of the right ads column...

Hope this helps.


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