Tomatoes from my trip to Sicily

[sicilianu]

I went back this summer to my birthplace, Sicily and found traditional tomato varieties.

These are assorted tomato varieties from my village Alcara Li Fusi in the Nebrodi Mountains of Northeastern Sicily.
There are two cherry types which may show up in the pictures. One which is completely sphere-shaped is traditional to my area, but the other which is more of an oval/grape cherry tomato is not traditional and is a recent popular commercial Italian cultivar.

The fruits below are of landrace(s) used for making sauce.

This one at first look might seem to be some kind of bicolor, but it seemed to just have yellowish-green shoulders.

The photo below is of landraces used primarily for salads (as mentioned earlier the oval-shaped cherries are not traditional but the spherical ones are).

 

[sicilianu]

The tomato below is from one of the famous open markets in Palermo, the capital of Sicily. It seems similar to "Rosso Sicilian" sold in the U.S.

 

[sicilianu]

It is a little hard to see but below are plants of a traditional variety in Petrali Sottana in the Madonie mountains of Palermo province. Of what I understand this variety is very low-growing (as in the photo) and produces medium size fruit for sauce and drying.  Traditionally it is not watered or staked and is very drought-tolerant.

Below are not photos that I took but they are of the same variety, called "Siccagno."

 

[headfullofbees]

Delightful.
Thank you for those interesting and informative posts.

 

[zigs]

Lovely report, cheers

 

[Antau LJn]

Thanks for sharing.

 

[Becky]

Looks great, some of those are huge! Did you make sauce from them while you were there?

 

[Cjk85]

They look awesome.. A couple of seasons back I grew something very similar but none of the above names ring a bell, some of them did grow to an amazing size, they resemble beefsteak Tomatoes I grow here.

 

[Cheerio]

I am so jealous! I bet that was a marvelous trip! I really appreciate the photos. That was a real treat to see them. The only problem is that now my mouth is watering and I am having a craving for a tomato sandwich. I have a few salad tomatoes here in the fridge, but they are those tasteless, plastic looking ones that are fairly useless.

Again, thank you so much for sharing your photos. Feel free to post more if you have them because I am sincerely interested in seeing them and hearing more about your trip.

 

[sicilianu]

Looks great, some of those are huge! Did you make sauce from them while you were there?

My aunt made a huge amount of sauce while we were there. It was amazing!

 

[Becky]

Sounds great, just thinking about it is making me hungry!!

 

[claudine]

Wow! So many tomatoes! I must say that they all look more than delicious. I guess I should visit Sicily too, it sounds like a perfect place for me. I love both Italy and tomatoes

 

[cmckinney01]

These tomatoes look wonderful. I can't believe how large some of them are. They are like jumbo tomatoes. No wonder Italian food is so good if the folks there have tomatoes that are so big and tasty.