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Re: Tomato varieties for taste.

Thanx to Sue Drake for a meaty response on tomatoes and 'Mama Mia' in
particular!

I'm in MM mourning and don't quite know what I'll do about paste toms for
this season.  Last year I tried Roma and La Roma and found both grossly
inferior to my MM's, which produced a bumper crop despite being shaded by
weeds over 6 feet tall (yes, that's what happens when a community plot gets
away from you and it rains every third day....)

Re rainbow chard, I've never personally grown any chard.  But I know it does
well here (around D.C.) because my late next-door neighbor, an Italian-born
super gardener, grew it every year extensively.

Sue said,
> Speaking of the Taylor's Guide [to Heirloom Vegetables] (and the reason I
brought it up; brain-fade strikes
>again) -- the 'Amish Paste' tomato they recommend on pg. 287 *is*
>carried by Totally Tomatoes, if you think that might be an acceptable
>substitute in case 'Mama' never turns up.

I've seen mention made of 'Amish Paste' in a couple other places, too, and
always favorably.  There don't seem to be 10 million heirloom paste tomatoes
to choose from; this would probably be a very good one to start with.  The
Amish are *serious* about gardening and cooking; I doubt they'd stick with a
variety that wasn't top notch.

>According to the current Southern Exposure Seed Exchange catalog
>(another gem!!), there is a tomato newsletter available called 'Off
>the Vine' that might be a source of information about 'Mama' -- 3
>issues/yr., $7 ($8 Canada), from 21-2 Latham Village Lane, Latham, NY
>12110. Good luck in the continuing search!

Thanks, Sue, for passing along this newsletter info.  I believe there is a
more-frequently-issued newsletter on just toms, but it also costs more.  How
could $7 be a wrong idea?  I'll give it a whirl and post back to the group
about its quality.

--Janet
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Janet Wintermute             jwintermute@ids2.idsonline.com
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