Carolyn, my Opalka seeds were sourced from Sandhill. I will admit, my first year growing Opalka BER became a problem for several varieties(but not all) of tomato that year. Lots of rain followed by drought, and then I think probably over watered to compensate. Last year I gave Opalka another shot. And while I didn't get any BER problems, the production, fruit size, and plant vigor just wasn't all that spectacular. As I said before, the taste, while not bad, was only a slight improvement over Roma(which I consider to be far more vigorous and productive). I know most here won't share my opinion, but I've found leaf problems are far less pronounced when growing hybrid tomatoes and varieties bred for resistance. I understand that all tomato varies are susceptible to one thing or another regardless of being OP or Hybrid, dictated by the grower, but more accurately, by the environment and soil- which is sometimes difficult if not impossible to control. Mulio, I am far from being an expert, but this "grower" has successfully grown and harvested many varieties of tomatoes over the last decade. I've made a few mistakes along the way, but it ain't my first rodeo. I mean, really, how hard is it to grow a tomato? Opalka just didn't pan out the way I hoped it would. Just because the majority likes it(and Carolyn recommends it) doesn't mean I have to. I know it's not a popular opinion and I'm ok with that. This year is a mostly hybrid centric crop, and the plants just look so much happier and healthier than before, and producing like mad. Pure luck? science? grower? There are a few heirlooms that I would probably grow again, but 1 or 2 varieties out of the few dozen I've tried is hardly worth it.

OK, I must be search engine challenged tonight :). I KNOW there must be threads already that answer my question, but I can't find them. ***** Bella, for starters, go to near the bottom of this first page to the thread on paste tomatoes, and in that thread I linked to a search here at GW on paste tomatoes. Any time there's a thread on paste tomatoes there are folks who say they prefer to NOT use them, and I'm one of those folks. And in almost all of those threads you'll find lots of suggestions for non-paste tomatoes that others have used for sauce. I'm sure you tried the search feature at the bottom of this page but if not, just enter something like non-paste tomatoes and see what that brings up. It should bring up those threads where non-paste tomatoes were mentioned. I don't dry tomatoes so can't be a help there. Hope this helps b/c I know that I and others have listed our non-paste faves many times in several of those threads on paste tomatoes. Carolyn

"Those Romeos are beautiful, but how do they taste? Are they anywhere close to Opalka? " [Tom] The Romeo tomatoes taste good. Not great. They are definitely a paste tomato, and have very very little gel. So, they don't have the acid tang I like in a slicing tomato. But they do develop more flavor as the seaon progresses. They have a way better taste than your typical Roma tomato ... including Heidi and such, which I consider Roma types anyway. Heck no, they don't taste anywhere near as good as Opalka. No way possible! Opalka is special. Romeo tastes more along the lines of Polish Linguisa of which they remind me except that Romeo is a bit larger and has much denser flesh and less gel than Polish Linguisa. I haven't grown that many heart or oxheart shapes yet. Let's see ... Golden Oxheart, Orange Oxheart, Spudayellow Strawberry and Amish Paste is about the extent of my "heart shaped" tomato experience. No, I don't consider Amish Paste to be a paste tomato. No way. And with regard to heart shapes I've grown, yes they taste better than your average paste tomato, but they don't come close to being as dense fleshed and low gel as Romeo. BTW, I rather consider Opalka a "saladette" as that's the way I use it. It's too darned tasty and tender and wonderful to be tossing into a sauce kettle. But I intend to cross Opalka with Romeo next summer to improve Romeo's eating quality (I hope). Last year I had trouble crossing Opalka due to it's very slender and tender stamens. So, I'll be going the other way with Romeo as the seed parent in 2008. Bill

I'm going to look for the Turkish red pepper paste - I have some Korean chili paste, but I think the Turkish paste will have a different flavor. I also have the "Black Bean Garlic Sauce" (Lee Kum Kee brand) that is very salty and also too lumpy to be a paste, although I sort of use it that way. One of the Japanese pastes that I have is called "Yuzu Koshou", and it has an unusual citrus flavor, I guess from the Yuzu. Now that I know what the Yuzu tastes like, I might buy a Yuzu tree - I do like the flavor, and it is very distinctive and different - about as different as lemons are from oranges. I have another Chinese condiment called "Vegetable champignon" that is a bit thinner than a paste, but otherwise very similar and almost as intense. It has a unique mushroom flavor that enhances wood-ear mushrooms and tastes very good in soups. It's made in Taiwan instead of China. The Lee Kum Kee sauce is from Hong Kong, which is now China. Since I have two garlands of garlic, I will not be buying garlic paste, and I have to say that I prefer tomato powder to tomato paste, even to the Amore brand in the tube. I buy the two pound jars from Harmony House, and I also buy dried vegetables from them, which I find convenient to add to Japanese noodle soups on a whim. Lars Here is a link that might be useful: Harmony House tomato powder