Amish Paste

Amish Paste produces some of the largest fruit among paste-type tomatoes, ranging from 6 to 12 ounces, with shapes that shift between oxheart and plum rather than holding a single uniform form. The flesh is thick and bright red, and though it carries no core, it is noticeably seedier and sweeter than a typical paste tomato. The plant itself grows as an indeterminate vine, continuing to set fruit until the season ends rather than reaching a fixed size, and it typically ripens about 80 to 85 days after planting.

Traditionally used for cooking, Amish Paste can also be eaten raw straight off the vine. Its eating quality extends its use beyond sauce and paste making: it doubles as a canning tomato and a slicer, with enough juiciness to suit sandwiches without leaving soggy bread.

Because its foliage grows comparatively sparse, Amish Paste fruit is left more exposed to direct sunlight than on a typical tomato plant, making sunscald a documented issue for this variety.

Amish Paste is said to have originated in the 1870s in Medford, Wisconsin, home to the state's oldest Amish community. It later rose to wider prominence after Tom Hauch of the Heirloom Seeds organization acquired it from Amish growers in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, and Thane Earle of Whitewater, Wisconsin first distributed it nationally in the 1987 edition of Seed Savers Magazine.