Thanks Vickie! If one of my tomatoes falls off the vine while it's green, I'm going to try it! I'm really hoping that doesn't happen, but only because I need them to get ripe so that I can make salsa with them!

Could make green tomato chutney

My best friend down the street is from South Africa, and said they always made green tomato jam when she was growing up. A friend of ours found a recipe online for it, and made it for her, and Gale said it tasted just like being back home again. Sounded awful to me!

I hope you get enough red ones to make salsa too, Natalie:)

I have made green tomato relish before but not chutney or jam, both of which sound good to me. Makes me wonder how many ways there are to fix green tomatoes.

I used to grow tomatillos and loved to make the green tomatillo salsa. Liked it better than the red salsa. But never tried salsa from green tomatoes. Green tomatoes need to be cooked in some way to taste good to me.

Rita, I'm down to growing:
Pruden's Purple--less acidic, sweet, fragile, potato leaf, very large size
Better Boy--bit more acidic than above, more firm, lasts longer when picked
Beefsteak--very good, very large, potato leaf
A heirloom Roma type from Germany, very sweet, about 5-6 in long with a sharp end, larger around than Roma
Sweet large yellow--don't know the name, but an heirloom

Mixing this combination gives me a good flavor for canned tomatoes.

I like your taste test!!!

And I love fried green tomatoes, but only have them once or twice in a season.

Last summer I grew a yellow tomato that had green stripes. Can't remember the name of it, it may have been German Green or something like that. It was very good!!!

Cindy, that sounds as if that might have been Green Zebra. I might try Green Zebra next year if I can find a plant.

Shirlee, I am so glad to read your taste report as you are growing Pruden's Purple, which is a variety I would like to try next year.

I really like Pruden's Purple, Rita. It is my favorite tomato for eating fresh.
It is also the first one to set fruit here.

I had read that Prudens Purple is a somewhat early one which sounds good to me. Also have read that it makes a very good substitute for the finicky Brandywine. Especially for folks like me that just don't get fruit on Brandwine. Honestly I have tried brandywines from different sources in different years and never had any sucess with any of them.

I am thinking on starting some of my tomatoes from seed myself for the first time next spring. This because I want varieties that I just can't get plants for locally (or even mail order). Heritage Tomato Seed has a stablilized version of a Prudens Purple and Cherokee Purple cross called Vorlon that I might like to try.

http://heritagetomatoseed.com/...

But what really got me interested in the tomato seed at Heratage is the fact that they will be selling seed of the New Dwarf Varieties. And I really want to try those!

http://heritagetomatoseed.com/...

Rita, I didn't have any luck with Brandywine either, nor did I like the flavor.

It's easy to start them from seed, and easy to save the seed as well. They
do very well germinating. 100% germination.

I had a tray of cottage cheese cups with a cup of cukes, yellow summer
squash, zucchini, banana and bell peppers, and the different types of
tomatoes. The cups had several seedlings in each of them. I looked at that
tray and said to hubby, "Wow, just think, this tray will be our entire garden. Doesn't
seem possible does it." And it was our entire garden, except for corn, beans, okra,
and cantaloupe. The last four we just plant directly into the ground.

Well, I would be buying seed as I only grow hybrids now so nothing to save seed from. But I was not sure how easy or not it was to start tomatoes from seed. But really I do want varieties that are just not going to be possible any other way. And I bet I could start a few seeds in each cup and have all sorts of new tomatoe varieties. In fact that sounds really great to me.

Well, I do have the one plant of CHEROKEE PURPLE. But that is my only Heirloom this year. Oh and I am glad you didn't like the Brandywines that much. Because when I tasted one of the very, very few I did get I just didn't understand what the fuss was all about. It wasn't that special!

I would never plant them again. Had them 2 years ago and they produced such few tomatoes that it wasn't worth taking up the garden space for them.

http://heritagetomatoseed.com/...

This is the Brandywine cross that I want to get seed of and try for next year. I like what they say about it.

That one might be good, Rita, but I'm not familiar with the tomato they
crossed with Brandywine. Have you grown that one before, the
Marizol Purple?

No, I had not even heard of it. But I guess I feel daring in wanting to try new tomatoes. It can't do worse than my past attemts at Brandywines!

Guess not. I love experimenting with new types also.
I think Better Boy is a hybrid, and I save seed from it, and
get the same thing back without any problems. It is an old
one though. The newer ones may be different.

Better Boy is a hybrid. You may just have gotten lucky with the seed in order to get something almost exactly the same. But those like Big Boy and Better Boy are easy to find as seedlings in the spring. I am only going to start some that I know I would never be able to get as seedlings in the spring.

I guess I have very lucky. Been doing this for around 20+ years. Back then,
we were buying plants, and when we had a problem (several times) with the plants not
being true to name, as a yellow tomato instead of red, we stopped buying plants.
Got either some good seed or a good plant somewhere, don't remember
which, and have saved seed from it ever since. They are beautiful
tomatoes every year, and are definitely Better Boy. I have also tried
Big Boy and Early Girl, but stuck with the Better Boy.