Speckled Roman Paste Tomato
solanum lycopersicum

days to maturity: 75 days
plant spacing: 1 per square foot, trellised
sunlight requirements: 8-14 hours hours
look out for: all the pests love tomatoes, they require a good amount of management
harvest notes: harvest fruit after allowing it to vine ripen.
season: fall, winter
indeterminate

Speckled Roman is one of the few paste varieties we like to grow in gardens throughout Miami. It is an elongated plum tomato with bright red skin and golden streaks. This is the only variety I’ve ever seen that seems to sparkle and shimmer in the sun like a jewel… maybe thats one reason why we like it so much. Meaty red flesh has very little juice and cooks quickly into sauce, but it’s also delicious eaten fresh. Paste tomatoes have an old standing reputation to be not good for fresh eating, but really thats wrong… they are just better than the more watery tomatoes for making sauce. The thicker flesh is more meaty when you bit into them. Farmer Tiffs mom taught her to eat tomatoes like this by sprinkling just a hint of salt on each bite as you eat it like an apple right in the garden.

If you notice that the leaves of this plant look different, thin and scraggly, thats normal! Its just part of their genetics.