Ciao all-
I got Craig LeHoullier's book, Epic Tomatoes, for Christmas. He's inspired me to dig through the binders and pull out those TRUE heirlooms, the old ones, the ones that our parents and grandparents grew. I haven't come up with a list yet, but I'm going to start with the Livingston and Ben Quisenbury ones and go from there. Having said that, I always need a few rows of prolific pastes with excellent flavour. They don't need that excellent flavour off the vine, it's more of a sauce machine. I'm not the pepper grower, my husband is, but growing tomatoes for me is a real passion. For any of you salsa canners out there, I'd say one of the very best meaty tomato types that stand up to blanching and dicing would be just about any of the oxhearts. German Red Strawberry, Kosovo, Rief Red Heart, Canadian Heart..few seeds, dense flesh which is what I look for in a diced product that won't fall apart on canning.
bpwilly, you've got some nice ones there. It appears you like the black types. Large Barred Boar from Wild Boar Farms is another good one, so is Black From Tula, both bigger than Black Krim, excellent in a BLT. Seattle may be a bit of a challenge to get those big ones to really sugar up, but if you get that Brandywine Sudduth to do its thing, you're in for a treat! One of my all-time favourites.