DOUCET'S PLUM PRODUCER

Solanum lycopersicum

Growing true paste tomatoes here in the Hudson Valley has proven a challenge. Most are too late to ripen on the vine and wont to succumb to blossom end rot. We had once resigned ourselves to the very early Amber, which is not a true paste but solid enough for canning and saucing and a lovely color to boot. Téton de Vénus is likewise not a true paste, and sometimes late to ripen, but is usually the best all purpose tomato in our gardens, being fantastic for both fresh eating and producing a fine silky sauce. We more recently added Northern Ruby, a selection of the old Heinz Paste Improved, which is a solid standard determinate and very reliable in northern gardens, but the fruits are smaller and the sauce merely (though consistently) good.*

Doucet's Plum Producer (originally Quebec Q-1121) makes the absolute best sauce of any paste tomato we have grown in New York. It is a true paste, best for saucing and processing and not fresh eating. The semi-determinate plants are sturdy and compact and heavy producers, requiring a small cage rather than a trellis. Our plants produced solid mottled scarlet fruits, most ranging from 4 to 8 ounces, some fat torpedoes and some the size and shape of a human heart. All had the same hard red flesh and ripened over several weeks beginning in early August. Impervious to the cold soggy soil we had all spring and the extreme heat and drought we endured most of the summer. Some plants split and collapsed under the weight of the fruit set, but they continued to produce and ripen fruit. Very tough stuff. The workhorse of paste tomatoes.

Roger Doucet bred tomatoes in the late 20th century while working at the Station Provinciale de Recherches Agricole in St. Hyacinthe, Quebec. His tomatoes, including our beloved Rosabec, are adapted to the cool misty pockets of the Northeast, and produce reliably early even in the coolest and shortest seasons. Our original seed stock for Plum Producer came from the inimitable Sand Hill Preservation.

Grown by Farmacie Isolde.

Packet contains at least 30 seeds.

*The test of any true paste tomato is as follows: Wash, stem and seed tomatoes, cut into rough quarters and place into a large pot. Add salt (to taste) and just a bit of water (around a quarter inch in the bottom of the pan) to keep the tomatoes from burning as they begin cooking (once they are cooking they will release their own water). Cover the pot and bring to a gentle simmer over low heat. Allow to cook for as long as it takes for the tomatoes to break down. The skins will be falling off and the tomatoes will be easily crushed into a chunky sauce with a fork. This can sometimes take an hour or more depending on the number of tomatoes and the degree of heat employed. At this point the whole pot can be cooled and put through a Squeezo or just pressed by hand through a mesh colander. Discard the skin and any seeds, put the (fairly watery) strained tomatoes back into the pot and allow to very gently boil down until the sauce is thick. The flavor of this plain sauce, when made from a really good tomato, will be such that it requires no further seasoning.