Any Ideas?

Hi all, it's been a while! I'm hoping some of you will have an idea of what these tomatoes are. I bought them from a Mennonite lady, who got the seeds from a lady 30 years ago, and all the lady told her was that the original seeds came from Italy.

She said the foliage was strong, and not wispy, and they produce an abundance of fruit... they are very meaty, but produce a runny sauce, better for juice... there are not a lot of seeds in them at all. As you can see in the photo, there's really not a uniform size. They taste like a good old fashioned tomato. Very very rich flavor, just the right amount of sweetness.

Any guesses? Whatever it is, it's a keeper for sure.

My neighbor has Bloody Butcher plants with fruit that look like that . I don't know for sure though. Yummy looking though !!!!

thanks Juhur, I don't think they're bloody butcher, but they do taste really good! I've grown bloody butcher before... mine were all pretty round.

There's no way to ID a specific variety name for what you show.

There have been lots and lots of varieties grown in Italy and bought to the US, in the hundreds actually. and none of them have names before they came here and then some of them are given new names here in the US.I could make a list of similar varieties but b'c I see so many doubles, and even some triple
fruits, and a prominant nipplein your photo, I'll name just one that looks like that and that's

Sarnowski PolishPlum.

http://t.tatianastomatobase.com/wiki/Sarnowski_Polish_Plum#tab=General_Info

Yes, this one is from Poland but there are similar shaped ones from many areas in Europe, including Italy. I see that the pictures on Tania's page don't show the double fruits, perhaps Google IMAGES would, so you'll just have to take my word for it since as you can see, I was the one who introduced it and know it well.

Carolyn

Carolyn, you know I will take your word You're right, lots of doubling and even tripling in them. I will make sure I order some of those seeds, since I plan on starting my own seeds again this year for the first time in a few years. :)

Thank you Carolyn!

Melissa, good to see you posting again. I've missed you!

Melissa, why order Sarnowski Polish PLum seeds when you already have something that mimics it?

If those seeds came to you unnamed then the next step is for you to name them, and if you wish I can help with that in terms of what you need to find out,

Carolyn

Hi Darius, I've missed you too. :)

Carolyn, you're right, I didn't look at it that way. I have two jars of seeds fermenting right now, and am going to try Oxi Clean when I chop some for salsa in a bit. That was the other thing the Mennonite lady told me yesterday, that they made wonderful salsa.

I will definitely need your help in naming seeds Carolyn!!

Melissa

Oxi Clean? For what?

to clean the seeds, ozark, instead of fermenting.

and am going to try Oxi Clean when I chop some for salsa in a bit

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You've got to admit that your above sentence did confuse not just Ozark, but me as well.LOL

As for Oxiclean, several of us tried to find data to prove that it removed enough of the pathogens associated with the seed coat to make it effective, but we could find no data at all.

So your choice and I do know that quite a few do use Oxi-Clean or Comet or whatever.

Carolyn

I should have been more clear. I used Oxi Clean on one batch, I did send an email to Ozark to explain myself. As I told him, when it's a seed I really want to keep, I also ferment, just to err on the side of caution.

Thank you Carolyn.

OK, now I know about using Oxi Clean for getting the seed coat off tomato seeds. I'm always glad to learn something new - thanks.

A new seed-fermenting question: I'm saving all the seeds I can from the big new orange (still unnamed) OP variety that resulted from the intentional cross I made in 2009. They're so meaty, they don't have many seeds so I'm saving all I can.

This evening with supper I ate one of those big tomatoes sliced on a plate. I usually harvest seeds and pulp before sitting down at the table, but this time I remembered as I was eating the tomato slices. As I ate, I separated out the pulp and seeds with a fork and left those on my plate. Later, I scraped them into a plastic cup to ferment and added enough cold water to about triple the amount of pulp I had.

Thing is - I'd sprinkled salt on the slices I was eating before I thought to save seeds. Not much salt, but some. What with the water I added I don't think that will hurt either the fermentation of the pulp and seed coats or the germination of those seeds next year. What do you think?

I don't have any idea, but Carolyn will know!

Your tomato cross sounds amazing! I love meaty with few seeds! That's one of the reasons I liked this one so much.

Shoe, I don't think the salt will matter that much, but here's a Google search on that issue:

http://www.google.com/#bav=on.2,or.r_qf.&cad=b&fp=1&q=effect+of+salt+on+fermentation+of+tomato+seeds

What I entered in the search was..... effect of salt on tomato seed fermentation.

I probably won't get back to you on your e-mail to me of a week or so until Ihave the surgery on August 29th ( all discussed at TVille in that thread Mischka put up about me) and follow upon Sept 9th. There's lots of time to deal with those questions this Fall,

Carolyn

"I probably won't get back to you on your e-mail to me of a week or so until Ihave the surgery on August 29th"
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Absolutely, Carolyn! Your health is the important thing - so far as tomatoes, we're just having fun here. Wishing you the best.

I quit worrying about the small amount of salt those seeds were exposed to when I saw the fermentation take right off in that plastic cup. Also, I remembered that the seeds get rinsed with lots of water during the "panning for gold" process at the end of fermentation. They'll be fine.

Your Google search led me to a great recipe and discussion about fermented salsa, and I've really gotten into lacto-fermentation this season. Pickles everywhere.

Get yourself feeling better - and in the meantime we're really enjoying these big orange tomatoes and I'm saving lots of now-stable F5 generation seeds.

Carolyn, Feel better!

Ozark, I want to try these big orange tomatoes!

"Ozark, I want to try these big orange tomatoes!"
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OK, I sent you a d-mail Melissa.

Oh my goodness, it's beautiful!!

Another I have grown for the second year and really like is Pomodoro. It looks exactly like your tomatoes.