Let's imagine....

[barton]

Let's imagine that I have never heard of heirloom tomatoes. Let's say all I have ever grown are hybrids from Burpee...

Then if I asked you to suggest one oxheart, one paste, one cherry, and one beefsteak tomato to add to my repertoire, what would they be?

...btw, there are a couple hybrid cherries that I'm in love with

[paulf]

Sorry. I am going to break the "rules" immediately.

Cherry: Black Cherry, Fox Cherry and Sungold. A black , a red and a gold.

Heart: Butter and Bull Heart. Couer De Valours, Eagle Beak, Nicky Crain, Sylvan Gaume, Zore's Big Red, Wes. You may tell I love hearts.

Beefsteak: Stump of the World, Neves Azorean Red, Marianna's Peace, Kellogg's Breakfast or KBX, Cherokee Purple or Cherokee Chocolate, Carbon. A pink, a red, another pink/red, a couple of oranges and three dark reds or blacks (commonly called blacks)

Old Brooks is not a paste, but is a great all-round tomato for sauces, pastes and fresh eating.

I have not grown pastes much so that is left out. All the above are named because of flavor, my main reason for growing tomatoes; production is a secondary reason.

Sorry, I couldn't confine my opinion to so few; the list could have been much longer.

[barton]

Thanks paulf !!

The rules are just for fun. (makes me use my imagination)

I hope others will come forward with their suggestions too

[tomc]

Verja's Paradjz for a big tomato, Cows Tit for a paste, Esthers cherry (bespeaks itself)

Although there are many 'big' tomatoes that are gonna get top billing for your first category. In a like vein there are lots of cows-horn shaped pastes people really like over romas. Cherry tomatoes have probably a hundred of more 'most yummy' cultivars out there.

[landarc]

for cherry, Chadwick's Cherry/Camp Joy

for beefsteak, Marianna' Peace, although I do like Pork Chop and Tom's Yellow Wonder

for heart, Berkeley Tye-die Heart

for salad size, Eva's Purple Ball

I don't plant pastes for the most part.

[dld]

For cherry, Aunt Rubys German Green Cherry

For beefsteak, Summer Cider

For heart, Berkeley Tye-die Heart as it's the only heart I've grown

For salad size, Pink Ping Pong

[grunt]

For cherries, Guernsey Pink Blush
Paste, Giant Italian Paste
Beefsteak, either Guido Or Joe's Portuguese
Salad tomato would be Stupice, Dubrava, or Vilina
Heart would be Guildo (Gildo) Pietroboni