Black Pepper Tomato info...??
 

I just received a Black Pepper tomato plant from a friend of mine in New York (I am in Michigan). She received seeds from her Pastor that his Mom grows the seeds and has for many years. Their family came over from Italy in the 70's. I cannot find any info on this variety via online searches. I asked a fellow gardener/coworker if he had heard of this and he said he knows a guy that received a plant from a guy at his church. The man was a missionary in Tanzania for quite some time. The Pastor in NY also did missionary work but the seeds were from his Mother. Just a REALLY strange coinsidence!

Can anyone help me out with info on this heirloom!?!? Thanks in advance :cute:

[quote=Annanet;171625]I just received a Black Pepper tomato plant from a friend of mine in New York (I am in Michigan). She received seeds from her Pastor that his Mom grows the seeds and has for many years. Their family came over from Italy in the 70's. I cannot find any info on this variety via online searches. I asked a fellow gardener/coworker if he had heard of this and he said he knows a guy that received a plant from a guy at his church. The man was a missionary in Tanzania for quite some time. The Pastor in NY also did missionary work but the seeds were from his Mother. Just a REALLY strange coinsidence!

Can anyone help me out with info on this heirloom!?!? Thanks in advance :cute:[/quote]

I looked in some back SSE YEarbooks and also Googled it and couldn't find anything about it.

A couple of comments.

Black Pepper may refer to the shape of the fruits being either conventional blocky bell shape or an elongated shape such as several hot peppers, or for instance the tomato varieties Howard German, Opalka and others. But I know of no so called blacks that originated in Italy as heirloom varieties.

It sounds to me like it's the result of an accidental cross between a black and an unknown other variety and has been closely held within a couple of families.

I noted that there was a connecetion, a coincidence as you put it, in that both families were missionaries and recently I was able to ID a variety for someone that was distributed by Hope Seeds, which specifically distributes seeds to missionaries and others involved with mission work. At their website they don't list what varieties they distribute so that isn't going to help but at least I thought it was interesting to mention.

So I still believe that your Black Pepper tomato is the result of an accidental cross and has received limited distribution.

B/c I'm not familiar with any heirloom blacks originating in Italy I would very much like to grow it out next year to see if it's a blocky shape or an elongated shape. If you're willing to share seeds with me please PM me and in return I can provide you with several varieties of your choice in return.

Thanks so much Carolyn! WE are still diggin on our end to see if there is anything we can find! Thanks for your effort to help:cute: I will def. PM you!!

sorry to bump this up....but, are there any pictures of this variety, and did you grow these out Carolyn?

[quote=lilhammerlane;198731]sorry to bump this up....but, are there any pictures of this variety, and did you grow these out Carolyn?[/quote]

What you see above is the extent of the thread, so no, she never PMed me back and so no, I know nothing more and nope, no seeds, no nada.

Someone at idig mentioned that Blaker Creek was offering this variety but had no blurb yet, so I cut and pasted the above to there, but it already was Google available but I didn't realize it at the time, and there's a long thread there at idig, but no more information than already here about this variety.

We'll just have to see what Baker Creek comes up with as to a variety description. And I'm going to be curious about any background info based on what's posted here at Tville.

I'd go ahead and try to contact her but anyone can buy the seeds for this variety already, from Baker Creek, even without having variety info as to basic traits beforehand. And her public profile shows that while she joined I think it was last May, she's made only two posts total, including the two above, so I don't think trying to contact her is the way to go since you can buy the seeds easily from Baker Creek, grow it out this summer and see what you get.

I hope that helps.

[quote=Annanet;171625]I just received a Black Pepper tomato plant from a friend of mine in New York (I am in Michigan). She received seeds from her Pastor that his Mom grows the seeds and has for many years. Their family came over from Italy in the 70's. I cannot find any info on this variety via online searches. I asked a fellow gardener/coworker if he had heard of this and he said he knows a guy that received a plant from a guy at his church. The man was a missionary in Tanzania for quite some time. The Pastor in NY also did missionary work but the seeds were from his Mother. Just a REALLY strange coinsidence!

Can anyone help me out with info on this heirloom!?!? Thanks in advance :cute:[/quote]

Here are mine as of today's date.

[IMG]http://i1187.photobucket.com/albums/z388/WillysWoodPile/DSCF5265.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i1187.photobucket.com/albums/z388/WillysWoodPile/DSCF5266.jpg[/IMG]
There is still no description at Baker Creek.

Terry, I just checked and Annanet has not visited Tville since last June and while she gave some background information she herself was looking for more information. Seems to me she would have posted it if she grew it last summer, but maybe not.

When you do a member search you'll see that she lists both e-mail and PM contact so if you want to go ahead and try to contact her why don't you do that, but using only the e-mail contact, if it's still viable at her end, since shemay not get a PM contact.

And of course if someone here knows more thay can post it.

Terry asked this question at idig and I found him a previous thread at idig about it and in one of the posts there I'd linked to this thread here, so here he is.

Hi Terry!:lol:

[quote=carolyn137;210577]Terry, I just checked and Annanet has not visited Tville since last June and while she gave some background information she herself was looking for more information. Seems to me she would have posted it if she grew it last summer, but maybe not.

When you do a member search you'll see that she lists both e-mail and PM contact so if you want to go ahead and try to contact her why don't you do that, but using only the e-mail contact, if it's still viable at her end, since shemay not get a PM contact.

And of course if someone here knows more thay can post it.

Terry asked this question at idig and I found him a previous thread at idig about it and in one of the posts there I'd linked to this thread here, so here he is.

Hi Terry!:lol:[/quote]

Not knowing has really got my interest peaked. I will e-mail her.

Was reading this thread, and wondering if anyone has had an opportunity to grow this one yet? Would like to get any additional info that might be available. Still couldn't find any info on this one anywhere.

Thanks....Heather

[QUOTE=hmacdona;308315]Was reading this thread, and wondering if anyone has had an opportunity to grow this one yet? Would like to get any additional info that might be available. Still couldn't find any info on this one anywhere.

Thanks....Heather[/QUOTE]

Heather, I'm not sure what else one can do based on all the posts above as to finding out more about this variety and the contacts that have already been attempted. And clearly Baker Creek said nothing more about it either.

Thanks Carolyn. Was hopeful, that since time had passed since this thread was started...there might be some hands-on experience with this one. Even knowing colour, size, growth habit etc would be helpful. Thanks again

Here it goes...
Wispy leafed plant, sets fruit well, mid season.
Fruit has dark green shoulders, is brown, has yellow skin and is elongated. The gel is brownish green, the flesh is very pale, dirty reddish - brown, quite firm, dense and dry. Low seed count, very meaty. Taste is good fresh, even better cooked, on the sweet side. Makes a wonderful sauce. I'd definitely call it a paste.

Some pics, though small, might be of use :)

[IMG]http://s7.mojalbum.com/8547167_10659454_20212586/sorte-paradiznikov/20212586.jpg[/IMG] [IMG]http://s7.mojalbum.com/8547167_10659454_20212584/sorte-paradiznikov/20212584.jpg[/IMG] [IMG]http://s7.mojalbum.com/8547167_10659454_20212585/sorte-paradiznikov/20212585.jpg[/IMG]

Hope this helps ;)

Thanks Iva. Willy had posted some pictures of it in a post above, just showing foliage but not ripe fruits.

From the way it was originally described I was kind of thinking pepper shaped, which to me means a long reddish fruit or close to it and a paste as well, since most of the long pepper shaped ones are pastes/

Did you also get your seeds from Baker Creek or from someone who got them from BC?

Thanks so much Iva. I appreciate you sharing this info.

I don't know if mine is Black Pepper, but it's similar. This was supposed to be Cherniy Ispolin, a black beefsteak, but this is what I got. I named it Snickers, because the members at my forum said that it's not Black Pepper. Iva, what do you think, since you've grown the BP.....