Amish Paste produces gorgeous, meaty fruits that typically weigh 6–12 ounces each (most clustering around 8–10 ounces) and have a distinctive elongated oxheart or blocky-oval shape, often tapering to a slight point at the blossom end.
The flesh is dense and thick-walled with remarkably few seeds and almost no watery core, making them perfect for cooking down quickly into rich sauce or paste, yet the flavor is anything but ordinary: intensely sweet with a deep, balanced richness that makes them just as delicious eaten fresh off the vine as any beefsteak slicer.
Plants are tall, vigorous indeterminates that easily reach 6–9 feet and need sturdy staking or caging. Once established they set heavy, continuous crops from mid-season right up until frost—often out-yielding many slicing varieties.
HISTORY: Discovered in the 1980s by TomatoFest founder Gary Ibsen (deceased) in an Amish community near Lancaster, Pennsylvania (but actually tracing back to Wisconsin Amish gardens).
(First photo) via Nature & Nurture Seeds
AMISH PASTE
VARIETY CHARACTERISTICS
GROWTH HABIT: Indeterminate
MATURITY: Mid-season
LEAF TYPE: Regular
FRUIT CLASS: Paste
FRUIT SHAPE: Oblong
FRUIT SIZE: Medium - Large
FRUIT COLOR: Red
ORIGIN: Pennsylvanian/Wisconsin Amish heirloom

