I ended up with 2 dozen tomato plants by happenstance. I normally have
half as many or less. Too many tomatoes, but more varieties than usual.
We had a very hot, very dry season in southern Ontario, Zone 6. I had to
water a lot.

The Brandywines did well and produced a good crop, maybe about ten on
each of the 3 in the tomato bed, mostly in August. Last year and the
year before they each produced about 30 in all. So their numbers are
down, but the fruit is bigger this year. They're working on ripenening
their last half dozen big green tomatoes now, if the squirrels don't get
them. The tomatoes are sweet, juicy, and tasty and make fantastic tomato
potage, a recipe I found in this group years ago. Very easy, very tasty,
freezes really well in individual portions. It's like defrosting
sunshine in the winter months, or even on chilly fall nights.

Got one of Stokes' Health Kick tomatoes. Supposed to have extra
lycopene. Looks a lot like a Roma, but much more firm. Is good in soup,
but not all that tasty fresh. It's a short bushy plant that would do
well in a container. I won't plant this next year.

Tried Stokes' Ultrasweet. Terrible tomato. I've never seen tomatoes
crack that badly. They were rotten before they were ripe. OK flavour,
but not the best. I will not plant this next year.

Before I knew that I'd have a handful of cherry tomato volunteers in the
compost, I bought a Stokes Sweet Million. Interestingly, the seeds that
the cherries in the compost grew from were Stokes Sweet Million seeds
I'd started myself last year. But the tomatoes from the Stokes plant I
bought and the ones in the compost are completely different. The ones
from the storebought plant suck. They're smaller, less sweet, and, like
the Ultrasweet, really prone to cracking. I will start these from seed.

I have two kinds of San Marzanos, and both are solid, sweet and tasty. I
wash them and pack them into ziploc bags, and pop them in the freezer.
You can run the frozen tomato under hot water, or dip it in hot water,
and the whole skin slips off intact. Great for winter sauces, stews,
roasts, and pan fries with meat. A bit bulky to store in the freezer, so
when we have time, we cook them down 4 bags at time (about 120 tomatoes)
during fall and winter, into less bulky tomato sauce and chili and the
like and freeze it again in individual size portions. Very convenient
when work runs late and you come home starving.

How did your tomatoes do? Were there varieties that you really liked?
Any other amazing heirlooms out there that you can recommend?

Happy harvest, fellow food gardeners!

EV