Kurtovo Konare Pink Tomato

According to the legend, the seeds of this tomato reached Bulgaria’s Pazardzhik plain directly from Tzarigrad (Istanbul) at the end of the 19th century, hidden in a walking stick by Alexander Dimitrov, a local celebrity who introduced various New World crops to the region, contributing to local horticultural development.
Kurtovo Konare pink tomatoes are large, with each fruit reaching up to 300 to 500 grams. The skin is thin and smooth and the fruits are meaty, with a delicious flavor. The plants grow up to two meters tall and develop two to three fruits per inflorescence. The fruit is locally distinguished for its sweetness, and there is even a common saying, “as sweet as a pink tomato.” Kurtovo Konare pink tomatoes are eaten raw but are also well suited for processing into preserves, like lyutenitsa, made from tomatoes and peppers and famous all over Bulgaria.
This is a semi-early ripening variety, suited to production in the field or in greenhouses. The seeds are passed on from generation to generation. Collected from the best fruits, they are sown at the end of January and early February in Kurtovo Konare and the nearby villages of Novo Selo, Joakim Gruevo and Trivodici. Initially grown in kitchen gardens in the village of Kurtovo Konare, at the beginning of the 20th century the tomato spread to a larger area and became one of the best-known cultivars on the market. Due to its characteristics and the artisanal production systems, this variety can cost up to three times as much as ordinary tomatoes. So some retailers began buying pink tomatoes from other places and selling them fraudulently as Kurtovo Konare pink tomatoes. The local cultivar is also being threatened by the cultivation of foreign varieties that have higher yields and are better suited to transport.