A big question?????

[reavilh]

OK, Fellow tomato lovers. My wife and I put out a decent size garden, and usually about 50-75 tomato plants. We eat them fresh, make sauces, and can them. What varieties would you recommend for these different uses?

[jcm05]

Would be hard to beat Big Beef F1 for all three uses.

[darthslater]

If I had to pick one for all 3 purposes it would be Kosovo.

Darth

[amideutch]

Ludmilla's Red Plum
Burgandy Traveler
Cowlick's Pink Brandywine or Akers West Virgina PL if you want a Red.

[camochef]

If I could only grow one variety of tomato it would be:
Cowlick's Brandywine!
it is a great slicer, a great tasting canner, goes well in salads and produces very well!

If I could grow a half dozen, it would be:
Cowlick Brandywine
Amazon Chocolate
Sandul Moldovan
Lillian Maciejewski's Poland Pink
Barlow Jap
Dana's Duky Rose

If I could add another 6 to make a full dozen:
JD's Special C-Tex
Tarasenko6
Brandywine-Glicks
Dora
Rose
Richardson

I could keep adding a half dozen at a time but if you could grow those listed on an average year you would have much more than enough to eat, can, and give away to friends and neighbors.
Hope you have a much more than average year ahead!
Camo

[landarc]

For fresh eating, as a slicer-Marianna's Peace or Earl's Faux, Tom's Yellow Wonder
For sauce-San Marzano, Olpaka, Amish Paste
For salads-Eva Purple Ball, Moneymaker, Sungold

[klorentz]

I will just list my current favorites which would be easier for me.

Cowlick's Brandywine

Thessaloniki

Al-Kuffa

Abe Lincoln

Roma

San Marzano

With all the maters I am growing this year I will likely have some more hard choices.

[reavilh]

My grandpa grew almost an acre of tomatoes, and he sold what we didn't eat fresh or can. He always planted Big Boys and Better Boys. And I still like these two. I like the Cherokee Purple tastes, but have yet to get a decent crop. Camo, I'll have to try the Cowlick's Brandywine

[camochef]

Reavilh,
I quit growing Big Boys and Better Boys about 5-6 years ago, and except for trying a burpee seedless this past year, I gave up on Burpee seeds about the same time.
I also like Cherokee Purple but have never had what I would call a great crop from them. Seems the more of them I planted the worse they'd produce. Although they did take the #1 spot in my 2008 taste teste, last year they dropped to #43. But in there defence, it was a very bad year last year and all my favorite tomatoes, which were planted early, did much worse than the "new to me" varieties that were planted much later.
I also think Cherokee Purple and Cowlick/Cherokee Purple blend make the best sauces. Out of all the canning we did 2007 and 2008, they were the jars that both Mrs Camo and Myself would choose first for our different recipes, from pasta/pizza to adding to... well anything! Had others almost begging for a jar or two of those sauces.
Hope they do well for you! I cannot recall anyone not liking them either for production or taste!
Camo

[amideutch]

reavilh, give Spudakee Purple (Cherokee Purple PL) a try as I have found production and disease resistance better than the RL original. On the Cherokee Purple subject I know folks who prefer Indian Stripe over CP. Vorlon is another good one from the CP stable but production just isn't there. Ami

[PVP]

Fresh eating: Indian Stripe*, Spudakee*, Big Cheef*, Bear Creek*, Big Beef, Celebrity, Mountain Glory, Scarlet Red, Daniels, Cherokee Green, Green Giant*, Royal Hillbilly, Rose, Glory, JD's Special C-Tex*, Ramapo, Bolseno*, Opalka*.

Sauce: Opalka*, Romeo*, Plum Crimson, Plum Regal*, Heidi, Rutgers, Moreton, Indiana Red*, Bolseno*.

Thousands of others in both categories for sure. Those are a few that stood out over the past two or three years.