Tomatoes have always had a place in our garden, but mostly for fresh eating and then I'd just can up the "overage". This year I want to do that as well, but also want to specifically grow plenty just for canning. What's your favorite variety for this purpose...and why...and how many do you plant?
Paste Tomato
- Thread starter Mickey328
- Start date
majorcatfish
Garden Master
we have been growing howard german tomatoes for years, since we do a lot of canning , we plant 10-12 plants
the howard german has a lot of meat and very little snot inside.
it's a great all around tomato to grow. canning/ fresh eating/ making stocks and soups, even picked a few for fried green tomatoes.
purchased our seeds from tomatoe growers supply, started our tomatoes, peppers,eggplant last weekend..
the howard german has a lot of meat and very little snot inside.
it's a great all around tomato to grow. canning/ fresh eating/ making stocks and soups, even picked a few for fried green tomatoes.
purchased our seeds from tomatoe growers supply, started our tomatoes, peppers,eggplant last weekend..
- Thread starter
- #3
Thanks major. Don't think I've heard of that one. Think today is going to be "starting" day...got lots of outside projects that need done, but the forecast is for clouds and flurries on and off so I reckon I'll just garden indoors.
HotPepperQueen
Deeply Rooted
Up here in MN all strains of Roma are welcome in my garden. I usually plant about 25. As far as slicing tomatoes go, I haven't found my perfect match quite yet. And I'm with seedcorn....I'm tomato nuts, too! I usually plant 50 slicing plants and 3 cherry tomatoes. I can a lot of tomato products- juice, sauce, whole tomatoes, salsa, tomatoes & green chilis, and the list goes on. Hopefully this year I will find my slicing tomato soulmate!
jackb
Garden Master
Last year, for the first time, I planted one plant of San Marzano tomatoes to try them to make pizzas. I was completely brown away by the amount of tomatoes that the one plant produced. My wife loved them for making sauce so I stated seeds yesterday for this year's garden.
Here us what Wikipedia has to say about them: San Marzano tomatoes, a variety of plum tomatoes, are considered by many chefs to be the best paste tomatoes in the world.
Jack B
Here us what Wikipedia has to say about them: San Marzano tomatoes, a variety of plum tomatoes, are considered by many chefs to be the best paste tomatoes in the world.
Jack B
Jared77
Garden Addicted
Another tomato nut here
We use Romas here too here in Michigan. They are a good staple tomato but I'm looking for something even better. My plan was to try Japanese Trifles and Anna Russians hopefully this year but we'll see. Those are my next two varieties that I'm going to try.
Any overage gets mixed with our paste tomatoes and are used for salsa, soup, stewed and canned for a base, chili base, and sauce. Usually we plant around 50 tomato plants with about 1/3 to 1/2 of those being a paste variety. We also do Early Girls, Lemon Boys, Black Krims (which I LOVE LOVE LOVE flavor is out of sight but they are UGLY tomatoes but the Black Krims are what made me want to try Japanese Trifles) and a couple new ones every year too.
We did Green Zebras and they had a very strong peppery tomato flavor which we liked but it was tough to tell when they were ripe. They were really prolific. Produced a ton of pretty green tomatoes. So if I have them again I'd only do one or 2. DW said they were not worth the headache to palpate each one to see if they were ripe when we're picking tomatoes off 50+ plants and you have to stop and palpate each tomato to see which ones to take slows progress WAAAAY down. Although the chunks of red, yellow, burgundy (from the black tomatoes) and green tomato make a really striking chunky salsa and pico de gallo. Flavor was amazing hands down.
I try to grow a couple new tomato varieties every year to see if I like them or not. If I like them they get added to the mix, if not then I'm only out 2 plants but I still have all my regulars to produce for me.
DW is a big fan of the Early Girls so that's why I grow them. It may take more slices to fill a sandwich but we'd rather have that than waiting for the bigger varieties to color up later in the year. The sooner we get fresh tomatoes the better we all feel
Where's Digits on this? Steve's a HUGE tomato fan....I'm curious to see what he says on this.
We use Romas here too here in Michigan. They are a good staple tomato but I'm looking for something even better. My plan was to try Japanese Trifles and Anna Russians hopefully this year but we'll see. Those are my next two varieties that I'm going to try.
Any overage gets mixed with our paste tomatoes and are used for salsa, soup, stewed and canned for a base, chili base, and sauce. Usually we plant around 50 tomato plants with about 1/3 to 1/2 of those being a paste variety. We also do Early Girls, Lemon Boys, Black Krims (which I LOVE LOVE LOVE flavor is out of sight but they are UGLY tomatoes but the Black Krims are what made me want to try Japanese Trifles) and a couple new ones every year too.
We did Green Zebras and they had a very strong peppery tomato flavor which we liked but it was tough to tell when they were ripe. They were really prolific. Produced a ton of pretty green tomatoes. So if I have them again I'd only do one or 2. DW said they were not worth the headache to palpate each one to see if they were ripe when we're picking tomatoes off 50+ plants and you have to stop and palpate each tomato to see which ones to take slows progress WAAAAY down. Although the chunks of red, yellow, burgundy (from the black tomatoes) and green tomato make a really striking chunky salsa and pico de gallo. Flavor was amazing hands down.
I try to grow a couple new tomato varieties every year to see if I like them or not. If I like them they get added to the mix, if not then I'm only out 2 plants but I still have all my regulars to produce for me.
DW is a big fan of the Early Girls so that's why I grow them. It may take more slices to fill a sandwich but we'd rather have that than waiting for the bigger varieties to color up later in the year. The sooner we get fresh tomatoes the better we all feel
Where's Digits on this? Steve's a HUGE tomato fan....I'm curious to see what he says on this.
lesa
Garden Master
Yes, Jack I like the San Marzano's too. They really produce! I have planted Amish paste a few times, but they don't compare to the San Marzano. So, Jack are you starting seeds for your outside garden, already?
Jared77
Garden Addicted
Hey Jack & Lesa did you grow
http://store.tomatofest.com/San_Marzano_p/tf-0443.htm
or
http://store.tomatofest.com/San_Marzano_Redorta_p/tf-0444.htm
After seeing your post I went to find them and found both of these so I thought Id ask.
Thanks!
http://store.tomatofest.com/San_Marzano_p/tf-0443.htm
or
http://store.tomatofest.com/San_Marzano_Redorta_p/tf-0444.htm
After seeing your post I went to find them and found both of these so I thought Id ask.
Thanks!
- Thread starter
- #10
Great info! Keep it coming!
I like all kinds for slicing and salads, but with just 2 of us, there's only so many we can eat, LOL. While I love V8 type juice, I'm not too crazy about plain tomato juice, though Dave likes it. For the most part, I can tomatoes for adding to chile and soups, and lots and lots of sauce for spaghetti and such. So my main thrust this year is going to be paste type tomatoes with less juice and more meat...so I don't have to cook them down for such a long time. We got a Roma mill last year and it's amazing how many you can process in a short time with none of the hot/cold dunk and skinning stuff.
I like all kinds for slicing and salads, but with just 2 of us, there's only so many we can eat, LOL. While I love V8 type juice, I'm not too crazy about plain tomato juice, though Dave likes it. For the most part, I can tomatoes for adding to chile and soups, and lots and lots of sauce for spaghetti and such. So my main thrust this year is going to be paste type tomatoes with less juice and more meat...so I don't have to cook them down for such a long time. We got a Roma mill last year and it's amazing how many you can process in a short time with none of the hot/cold dunk and skinning stuff.
