Amish Paste has grown well for me and tastes good but I don't consider it to be a paste variety b'c it's far too juicy with too many seeds.

Some varieties have been named paste varieties just b'c of the shapeof the fruits, and another one that's not a paste variety is Lillian's Red Kansas Paste;

Carolyn

I've given up growing any paste tomatoes and instead chose ox-hearts or other low seeded, large flesh varieties.

If I have enough crop, I make sauce , never Paste. And for the sauce I use just about any tomato that I have ; The same for slicing, sandwich etc. I stay away from Roma, San Marzano types because of BER problem. I hate to pitch tomatoes :-)
I don't know how many people actually make PASTE.

Seysonn, people don't use what are called paste tomatoes to make paste, rather they use them for making sauce, and somtimes canning them.Most commercial paste one gets in those squeeze tubes or in cans

And folks use them for sauce since they are meaty and have few seeds.

I always used heart varieties instead b'c they too are meaty and have few seeds, but taste one heck of a lot better than most paste varieties that I've grown, with few exceptions.

At times I used to also make sauce by using anything that was ripe at the time,and just cooking it down to the right consistency,and Isure got some interesting colored sauces doing that.

Canning is what my mother did and I helped her,but I froze most of my sauce.

Carolyn

Carolyn, did your amish paste take awhile to start putting on fruit? Did you get a high yield from the plants?

I honestly cannot remember how long it took before blossoms were pollinated and fruits set, but I'm sure it was not always a specific time since weather would have influenced how radily the plants grew and started setting fruits and no two seasons have the same weather..

And yes, the yield was always very good.

Carolyn

I am growing Amish Paste for the first time this year. The plants seem 'delicate' - for lack of a better description. Hard to get going but take off after established. Just starting to fruit along with my San Marzano plants.

seysonn...yes, BER on the San Marzano fruit - this plant is susceptible? I have had to toss a few so far because of BER. Only pant exhibiting this so far.

First-time grower of Amish Paste. They seem prolific, but I am surprised to learn they're juicy. I grew them because Johnnys Seeds said they were great for sauces. But since I've always made sauce with whatever tomatoes I've grown, I'll make do.

I grow a few favorite paste tomatoes - Amish Paste is one of them.

They are a bit slower than, say my Speckled Romans, to set tomatoes. They seem to time themselves to be ready when it's salsa making time (my main use for them) in August. That works with my canning schedule :-)

They are juicier than a San Marzano or Roma type, but we prefer the better flavor (personal preference) and save the juice for other recipes/purposes after chopping and draining.

Very little BER compared to some others in the garden.

I think this is the 3rd or 4th year we've grown them. Very pleased with the yield and flavor, even in a couple of bad weather seasons and a not-so-great location one of those years. Hope that helps.

Well I guess my question is, is it normal that my amish paste plants are 5 ft tall yet each plant only has 4 tomatoes on them? I planted them around may 14, we now are in the dog days of summer with temps nearing 100 degrees so I know the chances of fruit set now are nil. Sad panda :(

Good to know malna, being not far from me. I really should try a paste. I just try every oxheart i can, and keep making room for more every year. Our favorites and does well for fresh eating. Not high yield but the best flavor.
I'm tending my neighbors yard and garden while in Italy and he only grows paste. For a scruffy little garden, third year, he has a good looking tomato crop i noticed while zipping past on my mowing tractor hog. (i might be a bit jealous?)
I'll look closer on Saturday...

To make 'paste', and much tastier than a purchased tin, just take a qrt of your sauce and spread it out on a 1/2 sheet pan or wide casserole and slow roast in the oven. Aprox 220 for one or two hours. All you are doing is slowly removing moisture to concentrate the flavor. Freeze in ice cube trays and toss in a zip-lock. One cube adds lovely flavor to winter soups and chowders. I process tomatoes a dozen different ways come harvest time.

I get a hundred lbs or so of field grown from a friends farm and make sauce with that...and
why i grow so many different varieties in my garden. I've been testing for my area for some time now and why my local nursery offers so many different oxheart starts.

To the op DeSpain...
Don't kick this variety off your roster for next year. Every season has different weather conditions/soil amendments, etc.
But do try other varieties and seek out other tomato growers in your area to compare successes. A local farmers market or CSA or neighbor.

Was reliable with good production for me. But I have few better ones now. One of my new favorite is producing loads in small containers. It is Early, does not take much space and good for canning and salads. Juice is just right.

Here is a link that might be useful: new favorite

If too much juice ( and reducing it) is a problem in making sauce, there are several method. I propose a very simple one here:

== after coring, dice your tomatoes and put them in a pot.
== Get a potato masher and LIGHTLY press the cubed/diced tomatoes. This will the most of the juice in the seed pocket out.

== Strain, to get the juice out then put it back in the pot and continue processing. In this process most of the seeds will get out too.

You can drink the juice or cook soup with it. Never throw away.

== cook until tomato is softened. Use a stick blender and blend/puree in the pot. Then sift/strain through a tight colander . This should get the skin, remainder of the seeds and any pulp out.

== simmer for desired consistency ... proceed with canning.

I find this method very handy and dandy in dealing with a lot of tomatoes at peak harvest time, short of begging friends and relatives to take some of them : lol

BTW: in this method the original volume is reduced by 2/3. and jar/can just 1/3 of raw volume. Some people freeze whole tomatoes. I find it a waste of freezer space.

So Amish or not, you can make sauce from any tomato and it is simple.