check the poll in a bit :)
I like....Mr. Stripey

Thin skin, meaty, sweeter than tart: Cherokee Purple and Indian Stripe.

Slightly thicker skin, not quite as meaty, but sweet without a hint of tart: Bradley.

Cherry tomato: Open pollinated, somewhat sweet, intense tomato flavor without tartness ... but like many cherry tomatoes, not especially thin skinned ... Gardener's Delight/Sugar Lump.

Hi outsiders - ditto on the Cherokee Purple

Be sure to check out these other threads running now too for more suggestions as they already have several lists going.

Dave

If you could only pick 6

Planning for next year...

Heirlooms for New England

Recommendations please...

Thanks for the responses guys. I should have put a side note about the cherry tomatoes. I'm just looking for sweet flavor and prolific producers for those.

Keep the suggestions coming, I'm also interested in trying green/yellow/white varieties if they have what I'm looking for.

Black cherry
Black Krim
Jaune Flamme . . . in no particular order.
Lou

My choices for next year are (now firm by ordering seeds):

Brandywine/Suddith/Quinsberry
Aunt Gertie's Gold
Tennessee Britches
Cherokee Purple
Prudens Purple
Black Cherry

Maybe Caspian Pink

Olive Hill meets all your criteria... plus production.

Aunt Ruby's German Green. It has become not only my favorite green-when-ripe tomato, but I believe it is my favorite tomato period. I won't be without it from now on.

When the green turns to a slight goldish hue, and light pink stripes begin to adorn the blossom end, you know you are about to experience tomato nirvana.

It fits your criteria above.

It sounds like you might love Great White!

Caspian Pink
Stump of the World

Black Cherry is a wonderful cherry tomato. Sweet, very prolific and quite the taste. Different.

I agree with Cherokee Purple. I also grew Black from Tula this summer based on recommendations from forum members and it has a lovely taste. Sweet, smoky. Juicy. I don't know if it is what you'd call thin skinned, but its a wonderful tomato.

I also grew White Beauty. I'd heard mixed reviews about it, but we really liked it here. Meaty, to be sure. Sweet, mild taste. Even the people who don't much like tomatoes liked this one.

I agree with many of the above suggestions. But will add you might consider Cherokee Green. I've just ate one so far but very good. Jay

Thanks everyone for the suggestions!!

Korney:

Where do you get your olive hill seeds from?

Hi outsiders71

Sweet, prolific, cherry, though kind of fruity, the best and obvious choice!
SUNGOLD
Just not an heirloom.

If you want a sweet, very tomatoyyyy flavered cherry of which practically every blossom turns to fruit (although small), and I'm talking many fruit. Try Matt's Wild Cherry.
Now you are zone 5 so I don't know how it would do, but they
flourish in zone 9. Good luck if you try it.

AND Cherokee Purple as some have recommended above; great bet!

Are there any heirlooms that are like 'SunGold'? Thanks.

Shannon's - My family heirloom. Usually in the 6-12 oz range with great flavor. Send me a e-mail, and I could get you some. I'll send some pics, if you like.

Greg

Also, Cherokee Purple for sure!!

Kelloggs Breakfast. Huge orange/yellow beefsteak w/ thin skin. Grows like a weed and pumps out monsters like no other.

Always growing in my garden every year and never disappoints.

Kelloggs Breakfast is something else. Huge fruit - bigger than any other tomato I've got growing this year and yes, a pretty good producer as well. It won't just give you one giant tomato, but a whole bunch. Mild tomato taste, quite tasty.

I like white queen, aunt ruby's german green, hillbilly, kellogg's breakfast, Black krim, green giant, pork chop, beauty king, provenzano, bocek italian, and yellow giant belgium for slicers.
In cherries I like amish salad, brown berry, black cherry, snow white (but they crack quite a bit), Ildi yellow grape, red star (a little bigger).
And in the fuzzy catagory, I like garden peach, pink peach, red boar, and angora.
I bought a new (to me)pink oxheart heirloom from Russia, Russian Mammoth, that I really like too.

Galina's Yellow is a favorite here, better than Sungold(not an OP) in taste for a sweet cherry tom (according to my family) and more produtive (I find). Other faves are Orange Jubilee, Vova Yellow, and Russian Persimmon. Reisentraube is very prolific, my four year old daughter stands in the garden, just picking and eating them. Black cherry is another must-grow-again one. And Purple Prince, which I believe is the same as Black Prince. Stupice is a great early tomato, when you've been waiting and waiting, they come through before anything else here.
Just my experiences here.

Mister Stripey did well for me this year in both the flavor and size categories, although almost all of mine matured completely orange.

Next year, I'm hoping to at least add Mortgage Lifter and Pineapple.

Thanks again everyone for your suggestions. I have compiled a list based on your feedback and from my own searching. Please critique this list and help me narrow down my choices where indicated:

Early season tomato:

Stupice - I only intend on growing one early season tomato because I will be growing cherries as well. If you can think of a better early season tomato that meets what I'm looking for please recommend.

Cherry tomatoes:

-Black Cherry
-Galina's Yellow
-Green Grape: Any advocates of green grape or should I stick to the above two?

Green Tomatoes: I don't really want to be growing 4 different kind of green tomatoes unless there's a reason to do so. Those who've grown the varieties below, please help me reduce this list to 1 or 2.

-Aunt Ruby's German Green
-Green Giant
-Green Pineapple
-Evergreen

White Tomato:

-Great White

Yellow/Orange: Once again help me reduce this list to 1 or 2.

-Aunt Gertie's Gold
-Kellogg's Breakfast
-Earl Of Edgecombe
-Homer Fike's Yellow Oxheart

Purple:
-Cherokee Purple

Thanks!

In order of (subjective) taste but then again, Brandywine knocked me over 20 years ago and still does so I am in there with popular opinion taste buds:

1. Brandywine Sudduth and Marianna's Peace
3. Andrew Rahart's Jumbo Red
4. Brandywine Red (as sold by Chuck Wyatt, not the Landis strain which is decent but not as good. Have tried other Red Brandywine/Brandywine Red's but never as good as what Chuck sold).
5. Sunset Red Horizon, especially for your Zone 5 as it set's fruit well in cooler climates.
6. Aunt Gertie Gold, horrible yield, very desease prone but whatataste for a yellow.
followed by other great heirlooms like Russian 117, Large Pink Bulgarian, Polish C, Aker's West Virginia, Omar's Lebanese, Aunt Ruby's Green, Brandywine Yellow, Box Car Willie, Brandywine OTV, Opalka (plum), Soldacki, etc. etc.

*bump* :)

*whistles*

I have Black Pear and it is the sweetest of all the tomatoes I grew so far.

Outsiders71, give us an idea about your climate.

Steve

Absolute best I've had - Mortgage Lifter. Red, sweet, bursting with flavor. Also had good success with Hillbilly - big yellow meaty tomatoes with streaks of red. I am still harvesting some big ones in late September. They look and taste great paired with a red tomato. I love the taste of Black Cherokee but have never gotten a decent yield.

Zone 5B, from Ohio, about 15 miles south of Cleveland. Plant date is usually around 3 weeks into May or later depending on what's going on here. We've notorious for having last minute snow or frost. Things are slowing down in the garden now.