Portuguese pink heart ID?
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Portuguese pink heart ID?
In the MMMM spoiler thread, I mentioned that I would be sending seeds of a tomato from one of my fellow gardeners at the community garden. He gave me seeds last year and said he didn't know the name of it, just that it was a Portuguese tomato. He got his plants from a friend who grows them for him, along with many other heirloom varieties. That friend is not Portuguese and I don't think this is his family heirloom or anything like that, just one of many tomato varieties he grows. I don't know the friend and can't ask him what tomato it is, and my attempts to get more info from my fellow gardener have failed (we have a bit of a language barrier).
When I grew it this year, it turned out to be a medium/large (not huge) pink heart, very smooth, very pink, strongly heart shaped, no ribs or ruffles, dense and meaty but with a fair amount of gel and seeds in the locules. The seeds are relatively large. The tomatoes are very flavorful with a real tanginess, not particularly sweet. Texture is somewhat grainy, so I liked it as a cooking tomato more than as a salad/fresh eating tomato. It was productive, held up well to our foliage diseases, and even managed to continue producing in the summer heat. Indeterminate and regular leaf. Long vines but not particularly bushy/full.
From Tatiana's Tomatobase, it looks most like the variety just called "Portuguese" (the smaller tomatoes in her pictures, not the biggest one). It also could be Gran's Portuguese neighbor, but that doesn't look quite right. My tomatoes look very much like the ones in this recipe post (first two pics after the salad pics): http://portuguesediner.com/tiamaria/por ... ato-salad/
Edited 4/27/24 to update link: https://tiamariasblog.com/portuguese-he ... ato-salad/
That blogger says her family knows them as "Bull Heart tomatoes," but Tatiana describes the Portuguese Bullheart tomato as red.
Does anyone have any thoughts on what tomato this would be? I'll post pictures in a separate message.
When I grew it this year, it turned out to be a medium/large (not huge) pink heart, very smooth, very pink, strongly heart shaped, no ribs or ruffles, dense and meaty but with a fair amount of gel and seeds in the locules. The seeds are relatively large. The tomatoes are very flavorful with a real tanginess, not particularly sweet. Texture is somewhat grainy, so I liked it as a cooking tomato more than as a salad/fresh eating tomato. It was productive, held up well to our foliage diseases, and even managed to continue producing in the summer heat. Indeterminate and regular leaf. Long vines but not particularly bushy/full.
From Tatiana's Tomatobase, it looks most like the variety just called "Portuguese" (the smaller tomatoes in her pictures, not the biggest one). It also could be Gran's Portuguese neighbor, but that doesn't look quite right. My tomatoes look very much like the ones in this recipe post (first two pics after the salad pics): http://portuguesediner.com/tiamaria/por ... ato-salad/
Edited 4/27/24 to update link: https://tiamariasblog.com/portuguese-he ... ato-salad/
That blogger says her family knows them as "Bull Heart tomatoes," but Tatiana describes the Portuguese Bullheart tomato as red.
Does anyone have any thoughts on what tomato this would be? I'll post pictures in a separate message.
Last edited by Seven Bends on Sat Apr 27, 2024 12:40 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Portuguese pink heart ID?
Thanks for any help!
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- Tormahto
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Re: Portuguese pink heart ID?
Taste is always subjective. When you say real tanginess, not particularly sweet, I'm trying to think about a pink heart to fit that description, but can't come up with one at the moment. I know of a few reds. In my garden, nearly all red and pink hearts are "sweet and meaty". Tatiana's website doesn't load for me at times.The next time it does, I'll do a little research.
Have you finalized a name for it?
Have you finalized a name for it?
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Re: Portuguese pink heart ID?
If we can't figure out its real name, it will be Dino's Portuguese Heart. Maybe if someone grows it out from MMMM, they'll recognize it and can provide the name.
"Real tanginess" may have been misleading -- I didn't mean sour or tart, just a somewhat tangy, "standard" tomato flavor rather than sweetness.
"Real tanginess" may have been misleading -- I didn't mean sour or tart, just a somewhat tangy, "standard" tomato flavor rather than sweetness.
- Paulf
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Re: Portuguese pink heart ID?
Portuguese Monster for me was pink and had less ruffling (ruffled, whatever the word is...maybe smoother), but not as smooth as the first three photos. More like the bottom left pink tomato. Mine was more a large blunt heart and maybe closer to "not a heart". Monster was like a pink heart in flavor, that is, sweeter than tart. Not much help but another Portuguese variety that may enter into the fray.