Alcara

General Info
Seed Availability

Alcara
Maturity
Growth habit	indet.
Leaf type	regular
Fruit color	pink, red
Fruit shape	irregular, round, pear
Fruit size	large
Fruit type	cooking, paste, salad
Variety type
Country	Italy

CA LO S

Indet., regular leaf plants produce medium to large-sized, scalloped irregular roundish fruits, 6-12 oz., used for paste, sauce, or fresh-eating. Very good taste.

Seed source:

Relative, Alcara Li Fusi, Sicily 13

Year grown: 2014

Location: Pasadena, California Zone 9b

History

Seeds of this traditional landrace were given to Simone Lovano by his uncle in 2013 who said that he had obtained seeds from elderly people in the area who had saved them for generations. Simone also collected seed from two fruits of this landrace from the local "Saccone" supermarket (In pictures below, these will labeled "Saccone").
The principle use in Alcara Li Fusi, Sicily of this tomato is to make sauce.
This is best described as a "landrace" and so contains a large amount of variation. This could be due to variation within the original population or alternatively that Simone's uncle obtained seeds of different traditional variants or varieties from different seedsavers.
The majority of plants grown out in 2014 produced fruit which were pink and medium to large in size, but there were also red globe-shaped, red "eggplant-shaped", and red pear-shaped variants.

Also known as

Alcarese

Picture Gallery

CA LO S. Alcara (pink) - ripening fruit. 2014-08-26.
CA LO S. Alcara (pink) - ripe fruit. 2014-08-27.
CA LO S. Alcara (pink) - ripe fruit. 2014-09-18.
CA LO S. Alcara (pink "Saccone")- ripe fruit. 2014-08-27.
CA LO S. Alcara (red globe) - ripening fruits. 2014-08-18.
CA LO S. Alcara (red globe) - ripe fruit. 2014-08-31.
CA LO S. Alcara (red pear "Saccone")- ripe fruit. 2014-08-27.
CA LO S. Alcara (eggplant-shaped) - green fruit. 2014-08-01.
CA LO S. Alcara (eggplant-shaped) - ripe fruit. 2014-09-07.
CA LO S. Alcara - Uncle's tomatoes in Sicily ready for making sauce. 2013-08-20.