Some varieties have been named paste varieties just b'c of the shapeof the fruits, and another one that's not a paste variety is Lillian's Red Kansas Paste;

Carolyn

And folks use them for sauce since they are meaty and have few seeds.

I always used heart varieties instead b'c they too are meaty and have few seeds, but taste one heck of a lot better than most paste varieties that I've grown, with few exceptions.

At times I used to also make sauce by using anything that was ripe at the time,and just cooking it down to the right consistency,and Isure got some interesting colored sauces doing that.

Canning is what my mother did and I helped her,but I froze most of my sauce.

Carolyn

And yes, the yield was always very good.

Carolyn

seysonn...yes, BER on the San Marzano fruit - this plant is susceptible? I have had to toss a few so far because of BER. Only pant exhibiting this so far.

They are a bit slower than, say my Speckled Romans, to set tomatoes. They seem to time themselves to be ready when it's salsa making time (my main use for them) in August. That works with my canning schedule :-)

They are juicier than a San Marzano or Roma type, but we prefer the better flavor (personal preference) and save the juice for other recipes/purposes after chopping and draining.

Very little BER compared to some others in the garden.

I think this is the 3rd or 4th year we've grown them. Very pleased with the yield and flavor, even in a couple of bad weather seasons and a not-so-great location one of those years. Hope that helps.

To make 'paste', and much tastier than a purchased tin, just take a qrt of your sauce and spread it out on a 1/2 sheet pan or wide casserole and slow roast in the oven. Aprox 220 for one or two hours. All you are doing is slowly removing moisture to concentrate the flavor. Freeze in ice cube trays and toss in a zip-lock. One cube adds lovely flavor to winter soups and chowders. I process tomatoes a dozen different ways come harvest time.

I get a hundred lbs or so of field grown from a friends farm and make sauce with that...and
why i grow so many different varieties in my garden. I've been testing for my area for some time now and why my local nursery offers so many different oxheart starts.

To the op DeSpain...
Don't kick this variety off your roster for next year. Every season has different weather conditions/soil amendments, etc.
But do try other varieties and seek out other tomato growers in your area to compare successes. A local farmers market or CSA or neighbor.

== after coring, dice your tomatoes and put them in a pot.
== Get a potato masher and LIGHTLY press the cubed/diced tomatoes. This will the most of the juice in the seed pocket out.

== Strain, to get the juice out then put it back in the pot and continue processing. In this process most of the seeds will get out too.

You can drink the juice or cook soup with it. Never throw away.

== cook until tomato is softened. Use a stick blender and blend/puree in the pot. Then sift/strain through a tight colander . This should get the skin, remainder of the seeds and any pulp out.

== simmer for desired consistency ... proceed with canning.

I find this method very handy and dandy in dealing with a lot of tomatoes at peak harvest time, short of begging friends and relatives to take some of them : lol

BTW: in this method the original volume is reduced by 2/3. and jar/can just 1/3 of raw volume. Some people freeze whole tomatoes. I find it a waste of freezer space.

So Amish or not, you can make sauce from any tomato and it is simple.