You're very welcome Gary.

How do they taste and how did they produce for you?

BTW, the variety is from Spain but got renamed in France.

And here I am with NO tomatoes at all.

Sob.

Carolyn

Carolyn, sorry about your having no tomatoes. I have a bucketful for you here in St. Paul.

Re: Couilles de Taureau. A couple of years ago you wrote on T'ville:

"I listed another variety from Spain in the 2010 Yearbook and while it has a French name the origin was Spain and someone in France, I forget his name, renamed whatever it was or maybe it came to him unnamed.

The variety is Couilles De Taureau, aka Toro, and while when listing my varieties in the Yearbook I usually give the English translation I didn't do it with this one and those of you who know French will know why"

Tatiana lists c.d.t. but not "Toro," but you're saying that's the Spanish name? Cool. Another source claims that c.d.t. was named by a Belgian. Nomenclature is tricky. In any case, we all now have the translation. (Why anyone would find the name offensive--as opposed to humorous-- is beyond me).

The taste is terrific, just as Tatiana describes it, and it looks like it's going to be fairly prolific. BTW, I can say the same for "Rose d'Eauze," from your seeds and which is huge, beautiful and delicious.

All I'm saying is that if it were written in Spanish language it would have toro as the name for bull, not taureau, which is the French name for bull.

I know how much you love those tomato varieties that are French in origin, let alone same for rose varieties, and I do my best to please, so watch out for Meme Beauce, from Nancy, France for next year. LOL

Also, just checking my notebook, I didn't send you Ste Colombe, also from France, b'c I had so few seeds, but should have more for next year.

I know Tania describes Meme Beauce at her website but didn't check to see if she had Ste. Colombe which I newly listed this year in the SSE Yearbook, seeds from someone I know at another message site who brought it back from France and named it b'c it came to her unnamed by the local folks in the small French town area where she and her DH had been staying off and on for summers.

Carolyn, who also notes that if one refers to another message site here, by name, one can get banned, last I knew.

Thanks, Carolyn. I checked out Tatiana and she does indeed list Mémé Beauce (Granny Beauce) but not Ste. Colombe; I checked under C, Ste, and Sainte. Be nice to try them out. These French varieties deserve to be better known.

And, oops, sorry about the reference to that 'other' site. Maybe the T' will throw the dogs off the scent and I won't be banned. I know better now.

Gary, I have Couilles de Taureau from Carolyn too, and although I've only had one ripen yet I was very impressed with the size and flavor, and will definitely grow it again. My Rose d'Eauze never sprouted for me at all; maybe I'll try again next year. I'd also like to try Mémé Beauce. Ste. Colombe comes from me; a woman whose house I did a painting of invited me in to see her backyard potager and gave me two almost ripe tomatoes: a Cornue des Andes and the unnamed heirloom that I called Ste. Colombe. She and her husband told me how to save the seeds, and I've been growing both ever since. The Ste. Colombe is a very large tomato with a rich flavor, pinkish in color with green shoulders. A friend who lives in the next town over told me that they are grown there, too, but are just referred to as "that big, ugly tomato."

Aha, my source for Ste. Colombe appears. LOL

Gary, I'm doing my darndest to get the newer described varieties out there and L knows that as well.

I send the best of what I grow each year to several seed sites where I know the owners and trust them and I also list them in the SSE YEarbook.

There are quite a few seed site owners who get their starts from the YEarbook so that's another way that new varieties get out there.

And I also distribute them in that free seed offer that I make elsewhere.

No, I didn't think Tania would have Ste. Colombe described yet. I know she's behind on some recent SSE Yearbook varieties as well as scanning seed sites to post where she indicates seed sources.

And yes, Ste. Colombe is a great variety.

And I see by looking in my notebook near me that this past Spring I sent Ste. Colombe to two SSE members who are very good friends who have huge listings as well as to Glenn at Sandhill and didn't have enough seeds to send elsewhere b'c I had few seeds and they went to those SSE members who requested them from my listing. I didn't have enough seeds to offer in my seed offer.

But I normally send to Sandhill, Gleckler's, sometimes to Mike at Victory Seeds but he's way behind on trialing as it is, sometimes to Marianne Jones and usually to Linda at Tomato Growers Supply but this past Spring when we talked she said she too was very behind on trialing and had only trialed one variety from the year before, that was Orange Minsk, which she loved so I know that one will appear in a year or two and is already available at other sites. So I won't be sending anything to her until later this Fall.

As it is, the seed production for ALL of my varieties is now done by others, actually four folks this year, bless them, and seed production for Ste. Columbe is being done in KY and I haven't had any feedback lately.

All the others are being done by 3 folks in NC.

So never fear, I'll distribute stuff as fast as I can and have been doing so.

The fact is that I get more feedback from my seed offer than I do from SSE members who get seeds from me so in a week or two I'll be putting up a feedback thread elsewhere to see how some of the new varieties did for those folks.

Yes, L, you get Meme Beauce, but you have to remind me and if you don't have enough Rose d'Eauze seeds let me know as well. But Gary was able to germinate his. ( smile)

Gary, I didn't review that thread about Couilles so it could well be that it was renamed in Belgium, not France; that's the French speaking part of Belgium. ( smile)

Carolyn

Riverfarm, thanks for chiming in here. I'm happy to hear another positive report on Couilles de Taureau. I've got Mémé Beauce and Ste. Colombe on my list for next year in case I can scare up some seeds. I'll be sure to save seeds from Rose d'Eauze and would be happy to share them with you.

I got no germination from Rose d'Amagu (also from Carolyn, via Reinhard Kraft, I think, and still not in Tatiana's database), but would like to try it again as well. Another French-named tomato, Noire charbonneuse, though in my opinion not quite of the same caliber as the others, is performing nicely this year.

Thanks, once again, Carolyn, for your untiring efforts.

Gary

Riverfarm, thanks for chiming in here. I'm happy to hear another positive report on Couilles de Taureau. I've got Mémé Beauce and Ste. Colombe on my list for next year in case I can scare up some seeds. I'll be sure to save seeds from Rose d'Eauze and would be happy to share them with you.

****

Gary, I think I already told you you have Meme Beauce and Ste. Colombe coming from me and I can send you more Amagu as well.

And I told L she had Meme Beauce coming and I can also send her more Rose d'Eauze seeds at the same time.

But you two better remind me come December.

And nothing is known about Noire Charbonneuse. I just had to look that one up for someone and seeds for it were sent to Bill Minkey from an SSE member in Australia in 1996 and Bill first listed it in the YEarbook in 1997. Absolutely no history at all. See also Tania's page on this one.

French language for the variety name but no way to know where it originated from. Since it did have a French name that's why I sent it to Gary. LOL

Maybe I should go back thru the seed I've kept and dredge up all the ones with names in French, let us NOT argue about the spelling of Cuostralee which I got from Norbert in France in that huge seed trade I did with him in 1992, and I could then send old seeds of the same varieties to both of you and see who does the best job of Lazarizing them, so to speak. ( smile)

I say, this sure beats e-mailing each other. LOL

Carolyn, spending all her quality time watching tennis on TV these days, ultra fan that she is.

So Gary is another one who likes French tomatoes? That's funny! Why is that, Gary?

I have one Rouge d'Amagu plant but I haven't had a tomato from it yet. Only one came up out of the four seeds that I planted.

The problem with this forum is that there's no notification of response on threads you've contributed to, so you have to remember where you've been and which threads you've gotten involved in. I find that really difficult! So I prefer emailing!

L, if Gary agrees I can put you in touch with Gary via e-mail. We've known each other for many many years and each year I send him some of my best varieties, and yes, he likes tomato varieties that originated in France as he does roses, of which he's also sent me some that he clones from what he has.

I seldom post here these days for many reasons, but stop by from time to time just to see if there's a question that I can help with, mainly dealing with tomato varieties.

I too like to know where I'm at in space and time as regards threads/posts and it can get difficult sometimes.

My days of spending hours in the Pest and Disease Forum here answering questions are long over and those younger than I am can take over. ( smile)

Carolyn

There are some good discussions on here but I do wonder why it's set up like this. I use it less than I would otherwise because of that.

I've had several more excellent Couilles de Taureau, but the fruit seems to be toward the bottom of the plant with few new flowers or fruits coming along. I wonder why that is! I'm not sure how much I'll get out of my six plants.