Dave, I know that there are many wrong Opalkas out there, at some seed sites, as well as with traded seeds, so in this specific situation I don't think I'd trade for them since there are many more wrong varieties obtained by trading than there are by purchasing seeds directly from a good seed source, Maybe you remember when I used to do a wrong varieties thread here at GW each year and the data from those threads as well as my bouncing around at several seed sites for many years convinced me, and many others, to never get involved in seed trading unless a person knows the person they are trading with. Yes, I know it's heresey to speak of not trading seeds, but we've established that both of us are approaching the 3/4 centuray mark, ahem, and I'm not backing down from my trading position. LOL Finally, I think it's VERY important that folks support the many family owned seed sites b'c they are the ones who are doing the most to help preserve varieties by making them available to the public. All of the family ones? Heck no, some have terrible reputations. And I refuse to blacklist those in a public Forum such as GW or even privately to anyone I don't know well. It's a plus if folks read and post at seveal message sites so they are exposed to different opinions, and that's my own opinion.. ( smile) Carolyn

Well, bad news today, Amazon is sold out of the Opalkas.. I will call Laurel later today and see if she has any. What I would do is do a search for "Tomato Plants for Sale, Bay are, or your city or a big city nearby. Why do I suggest that? Well I did a search for Tomato Plants "Orange County Calif". I didn't turn up any nursery that had the kind of maters I wanted, so I found Laurel and ordered them all from her. I had a dentist appointment Tuesday, and on the way home, I stopped at a local Nursery, (about 10 miles from Home). They had every mater I wanted, and nice size and price too!, GRRRRRR. I did not find that nursery when I did my search because it was in LA County!!!!! With Me, I want "Instant Gratification" with my maters, and had I done a better search, they would be in my garden now!!! I'm 70 and don't have the patience, time, or wish to take the chance on something going wrong trying to plant seeds, caring for them, light heat, water, etc, transplanting them a couple times, hardening off etc etc, so I always buy live plants. Hope you find your maters! Gary

Frank, I have never considered Amish Paset to be a true paste used for sauces, etc. The reason being that's it far too juicy. Nothing wrong with the taste, so it just means that you have to cook it down more. Back when, some folks named varieties just based on the shapes of the fruit. I think that's how Amish Paste was perhaps named. Another one is Lillian's Red Kansas Paste, which in no way is a paste variety. The issue with paste varieties is that they should have dense fleash and few seeds, but so many of the paste varieties that folks cling to like the romas and costolutos, etc., are far more susceptible to BER as well as Early Bight. Which is why many folks don't bother to even grow paste ones, they use the best tasting ones from the garden that have dense flesh and few seeds, usually the heart vareiies, which have some of the best tastes, as well as some of the large red and pink beefsteak ones that have dense flesh and few seeds. Carolyn, but there are some paste varieteis that I do think work out well.

Have you posted or looked over on the Seed Exchange forum here? You don't have to have trades for most of the offers there. Dave