Q: I grow Roma tomatoes every year. How can I get them to ripen all together? I make my own marinara sauce, but it’s difficult to do when I can’t get all the tomatoes to ripen together.

A: As you know, paste tomatoes are bred to have more meat and less juice, perfect for marinara sauce. ‘Roma’ is a “determinate” tomato plant, meaning that it should ripen all of its fruit at once. The other popular paste tomato is ‘San Marzano’, an “indeterminant” variety that bears tomatoes over a longer period. But there are several other paste type, determinate tomatoes, including ‘Belstar’, ‘Viva Italia’ and ‘Plum Dandy’. Try them instead of ‘Roma’. You’ll have to look on the Web for seed sources.