This sounds like a Walmart-Burpee seed pkt. In which case I don't know and never will. If you're looking for an oxheart/paste, it's best to wait for digdirt or Carolyn Male's response. Hungarian-Italian maybe what you're looking for in a solid paste type with good tasting results. Since you're in L.I.,NY try directing possibilities to Trudi at Wintersown.org OR you could look at offerings ar mariseeds.com Italian culinary

Thanks again for all of the recommendations. I will be trying many of them in the years to come, but at this point I have narrowed my list to the following: Guajito: - Mexico - Md season - Medium fruit size and medium/heavy load , pear tomato, to 7cm long, sometimes nippled, red, meaty.intermediate. Italian Paste, Large: is SSE tomato #1547, pole habit, 92 DTM, and came from Mary Ann Billera's grandmother according to the SSE 2006 Yearbook. Opalka: 90 days. Meaty pepper-shaped fruits deliver a rich, sweet flavor that makes exceptional sauces. They are also tasty fresh. Indeterminate vines. Orange Banana: -85 days. Lycopersicon esculentum. Plant produces good yields of 4" long by 2" wide orange banana shaped tomatoes. Tomatoes are sweet and very flavorful. Used in salads and gourmet dishes. Also used for making a nice orange sauce. Excellent drying variety. Indeterminate. Perito: - 70-80 dtm, indet, reg leaf, with droopy foliage typical of many open-pollinated heart/plum/paste types. Produces 6-10 oz red plum tomatoes. Brought to the states by Matt Perito, originally from Italy in the early 1900's. very prolific sauce/paste type Rio Grande: - 80 days, Very large, blocky pear-shaped tomatoes are borne in profusion, making for large harvests to turn into tomato sauce, paste, or juice. Deep red fruit is about 4 inches long. Vigorous plants are well adapted to extremes in temperature. Determinate. I plan on 2 or 3 plants of each as myu family loves salsa(Fresh and Canned). Dean

"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

Finally got around to making this over the weekend using the Almond Dream recipe that Michael posted. It was perfect. The flavor was bright, clean and creamy with nothing cloying about it...just like I remember. I eliminated the egg yolk & just used extra cornstarch, I also froze the mix on a sheet pan, then broke it up & pulverized it in the food processor. This resulted in a crunchier texture and a SUPER COLD Italian ice. Not so good for 20 degree nights in NY but it will be perfect for the summer. Making it this way also resulted in an extremely low fat & not to sweet but amazingly satisfying dessert. Unfortunately after eating it my tongue was so numb I was speaking as if I had just had it pierced! It was a riot, none of us could speak properly. Now all I need to do is to figure out the "right" way to incorporate the almond slivers into it and I will have succesfully duplicated the elusive Lily with Almonds. This recipe is a must try if you like Italian ices. It couldn't be easier & you don't even need an ice cream maker (I just didn't feel like dragging it out). Even my 4 year old ate it and pronounced it "delicious". OK, he pronounced it more like "derocus" because his tongue was so numb but he still enjoyed it. I'll probably try my hand at making almond milk eventually but for now the ALmond Dream works perfectly. Thank you all so much! Nina