Steve I'm going to attach a picture to your thread. It is the fruit I picked from one Randy's Brandy plant today. I got seeds for this variety from a grower in the Tulsa, OK area. Along with seeds for several other varieties. Among them was another variety named Grandma Suzy's. Both are pink and have very good flavor. The Randy's Brandy is an Brandywine selection/cross. Of the 30 plus crosses/selections I've grown it is by far the most prolific producer. I started picking fruit from this plant in mid June. It has produced on a steady basis since. For the last several weeks I've picked at least this many and sometimes more. Usually the size is 4-6 ounces. But this year due to the drought/heat size has varied greatly. From 2 ounces to 8 ounces. I will attach a link to my photobucket site. On page 4 is a picture of some Grandma Suzy's from last year. One plant this year had several larger than those last year. One evening I picked ten in the 10-14 ounce range. The Randy's Brandy if left to fully ripen has a mild but very deep flavor. The plant that produced the ones in the picture is still loaded and looks like it will keep producing steadily till frost. I gave a coworker one of the plants. He had some of the fruit at work last week. He really likes it. There is a picture of another variety I received from the Tulsa area grower. It is named Cody's Paste. By far the best flavored Roma I've ever tasted. Jay

Here is a link that might be useful: Photbucket

I am pleased you saw this thread, Jay.

You know, raising heirlooms is fairly new to me. I am risk-averse, just my nature. Even with a fairly big tomato garden each year, I agonize over the choices . . . while avoiding anything that really looks like it will not perform well.

By far, most of the beefsteaks are rated at 80+ days. I've said before how frustrated I get standing in front of a plant with green fruit that has ripened one or none thru the season. Also, I don't much like a plant that spreads all over hell's half-acre and then kicks out 1 or 2 fruits after a full season. Then, there is cracking . . . it is just such a serious problem in my garden with some of the varieties.

For sure, I take all this too personally but there are some hybrids that are so reliable. Leave behind all the fun and flavor of heirlooms? I don't want to do that and there is really no reason to. That's what I'm learning but it is a steep curve. Climate -- so much of it is about climate.

I will go back to Jeff Casey's website this winter and try to read between every line. I gotta get back to Remy and Sampleseed.com - she is such a gem. Tatiana is too, why haven't I ever bought anything from her?!

I am still wondering why the Kimberley seed Jeff sold me grew plants which consistently produced 5 ounce tomatoes when they were supposed to be only half that size. I am wondering why the Woodle Orange is described everywhere as a large tomato but the little guys never get above 5 ounces and those are an oddity on plants covered with "Kimberley-sized" fruits!!

Now, these size issues aren't important. The Kimberley had quite a core and disappointed me a little that way. Woodle Orange is small and isn't very orange but I'm delighted with it!

Risk venturing into the realm of the late and large? I don't know. I hate to be kind of stuck in the class with Early Girl. Have them grow big and split or fail to ripen? I'll venture a plant or 2 but what I'm actually thinking is to get back into some serious Plum territory! Saladettes, you know!

I'm kind of a big guy . . . the cherries are wonderful but I almost like tomatoes too much to tolerate cherries!

Steve

This year, I planted 8 to 18 plants each of 8 varieties, and out of that, have two varieties, Thessaloniki and OTV Brandywine, that weren't totally hammered by disease.

Next year, I'm going to try Heidi again, which originated from Cameroon, which the two years I've grown it, it was more a weed than anything else. This year's 'weed award' goes to 'Gail's Sweet Plum'. Plum shaped? Yes. Sweet? No.

Jay, one of those JD's Oxheart seed came up as a yellow oxheart.

My Thessalonikis are doing fine, David. Not very large this year but 2012 seems to be somewhat of a difficult year for tomatoes here.

More Perfections! They have just started coming off the plants. The one at the top weighs 7 ounces. I think that the only way I'd appreciate this variety more is if it came in just a little earlier. Plenty of tomatoes and, altho' mild - a very nice flavor. A couple have splits on this bad year but mostly, blemish free!

I have belittled Orange Minsk but the single huge plant I have in the 2012 garden is doing fine producing tomatoes. It does have a wonderful flavor and doesn't have much trouble with splitting. The largest one is 14 ounces. There were a few a week ago with more to come. That one there must be the largest on the plant but there was one a couple years ago just short of 2 pounds.

Earl of Edgecombe holds some real promise. The one in the picture isn't quite ripe and it is only the 2nd fruit off the plant. There are quite a few more and I don't think there is a split, amongst them! We ate the 1st and it was delicious but then I read a complaint about their tough skins. I didn't notice that. You know, a tomato doesn't need a tough skin not to split. The skin has to be somewhat elastic.

There's an old adage that when you are looking for a home and if one looks better each time you see it -- that's the place for you! I'll try Earl again next year and munch down that tomato in the picture in a day or 2 with undivided attention.

Perfection has been with me for 2 years and I'm sold! Minsk has been around a few years longer and I can't make up my mind . . . of course, DW may make up my mind for me.

Steve

The temperature tomorrow morning after this wind storm blows thru is supposed to be 39F. Maybe that will wake up the Kellogg's Breakfast plants!

Frost in my big veggie garden, yesterday. Had the sprinklers on awhile and the ground was saturated from the night before. Didn't hurt the tomato plants but it will probably freeze there again this morning.

We picked all the fruits that were close to ripening so it doesn't seem likely that I will see either a Dr. Wyche's Yellow or a Kellogg's Breakfast ripen on the vine . . .

There are plenty of green tomatoes out there - sad face - I think that the very cool conditions here early in the season just slowed development so much that for some of the varieties, ripening fruit here was just a bridge too far.

Steve

I'm looking out the window at snow on the La Platas, so we're not far behind.

Steve, do you pick the green ones to ripen indoors? I find that if they've attained close to full size on the vine, most of them will ripen up eventually. I just compost the small ones.

I do pick the green ones, David.

How sum ever . . . if that plant never ripened one, solitary fruit in the garden . . . And, if they take weeks to ripen indoors, I'm not in the least happy about it.

The nearest-to-ripe Dr. Wyche's & Kellogg's Breakfast were carried home but it looks like I'd better not count on those 2. For a future garden, I may have an alternative to the KB that might be an outcross.

Steve

If I bump this up to the top, there's a chance that Jay will take a look at it again. I am also really hoping that Jali is around. Not only is she a very special gardener and helpful with questions like this, but she is the person who sent me the seeds for Gary O Sena.

And, here's my question: That picture is fairly accurate with regards to color. If anything, the 2 Gary O tomatoes were a little more pink than that, since they were still ripening at that stage. Does that color look "right" to you?

Another tomato gardener brought the color into question. I had some darker fruit, with the green shoulders a couple years ago - and saved seed - but, I went back to Jali's envelope to get the seed for this 2012 plant.

I would really like to save seed from that plant but if it a little too light pink, maybe I should go back to my earlier saved seed for future gardens or order some more seed online.

What do you do about heirloom plants that don't quite fit with descriptions but do well in your garden . . ?

Steve

Steve,
They are more of a pink than the ones I grew a few years ago. I will paste two links. The one at the bottom is very close to what mine were. The ones picture in the GW thread are lighter than the ones I grew. They aren't an heirloom anyway. They are a cross that Keith Mueller made. It is named after his Grandma I believe. If they do well for you I would save seeds and grow them. I used to not save seeds of anything that wasn't true to form. Now I do. I will change the name enough so it is apparent that they aren't the real deal. But in your case they might be. Weather conditions affect some varieties more than others. You can always grow plants from your saved seeds and the original. Jay http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/tomato/msg080954144728.html

Here is a link that might be useful: Gary' O Sena

Thank you, Jay.

I don't mind having tomatoes that I am happy with that aren't quite "breed standard." You couldn't get much closer that lighter pink, so that is of no real importance.

This was a terrible year for splitting. Even the Big Beefs had a few that split. This plant had almost none and with that shape . . . that says something.

Maybe I'll take the meat out of a couple and make shrimp salad stuffed tomatoes! How about that?!

Steve

I didn't mention the other new-to-me pink beefsteak that I'm trying this year: Sandul Moldovan.

Terrible, terrible with the splitting! I've picked a few of the green fruit and brought them in to ripen. They can go in the sauce pot.

(Do you suppose that the correct spelling of the plural of Big Beef is Big Beeves? And, why wouldn't my spell checker have picked that up, if it is??)

Steve

My neighbor's Dr. Wyche's Yellow has ripened a fruit . . .

This is miles from my tomato patch in the big veggie garden. His plants are near that dahlia garden that I show in another post.

The gardens there are a good deal more protected than out in the alfalfa fields where I've got my tomatoes . . .

Just to cast my own efforts in as a good a light as possible: the Dr. Carolyn cherry tomatoes had another good year. I am very pleased with this larger-sized, ivory-colored cherry. It actually seems that their flavor improves late in the season.

Steve