Pomodoro Regina di Torre Canne

Grown in the saline soils of the coastal dunes park in the Alto Salento, from Egnazia through Torre Canne to Torre San Leonardo along the old Via Traiana. The name is the calyx, which grows in the shape of a little crown. The fruit is round and small, a little bigger than a cherry tomato, and the brackish irrigation water thickens its skin, which is what makes it keep and resist pests. It came in around the middle of the 19th century, replacing cotton, before which very little land here grew tomatoes at all.