Opalka

Opalka tomatoes are elongated paste fruit that taper to a blunt or sometimes pointed tip, growing up to six inches long and weighing five to eight ounces — a shape often likened to a banana pepper. The fruit is coreless and holds very few seeds, giving it a meaty, dense interior larger than most other paste tomatoes. Their unusual silhouette draws notice from visitors, and occasional double blossoms produce oddly fused, almost cartoon-like fruit. Despite the low seed and gel content typical of paste tomatoes, Opalka's flesh carries a rich, sweet flavor rather than the blandness common to the type.

Opalka is regarded as one of the better paste tomatoes for sauce, sweet enough on its own that no added flavoring is needed. Despite being bred for paste, the fruit is good enough to eat fresh off the vine. It also holds up well for home canning, having been used to make and preserve sauce for later use.

Opalka grows on vigorous vines with sparse, wispy foliage, yet the plants remain productive and yield heavily. In at least one account, the plants kept setting fruit into October, outlasting other tomato varieties that had already stopped producing for the season.

Opalka is a Polish heirloom said to have originated around 1900, and it remained little known for decades before a recent resurgence of interest. It reached the United States through the Seed Savers Exchange Yearbook via Carolyn Male, whose seed came from her co-worker Carl Swidorski.