Tomato (var. San Marzano)

Description:

This is a tomato plant in an outdoor garden. Variety San Marzano, which is a semi-determinate variety of plum tomato, popular for pizza sauce in the traditional Neapolitan style. This specimen is just reaching breaker stage in the first week of August.

Habitat:

Outdoor garden on Colorado Front Range, elevation roughly 5,000ft. Watered daily by drip irrigation.

Notes:

The story goes that the first seed of the San Marzano tomato came to Campania in 1770, as a gift from the Kingdom of Peru to the Kingdom of Naples, and that it was planted in the area that corresponds to the present commune of San Marzano. They come from a small town of the same name near Naples, Italy, and were first grown in volcanic soil in the shadow of Mount Vesuvius. Compared to the Roma tomatoes with which most people are familiar, Marzano tomatoes are thinner and pointier in shape. The flesh is much thicker with fewer seeds, and the taste is much stronger, more sweet and less acidic.