Leftwood said:I think you'll find that this Scientific American article summarizes the disadvantages of heirlooms in more understandable terms. It's even, dare I say, interesting! (And, it might even relieve your headache, Sandy. 
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http://www.scientificamerican....
For me the comments in your link were more interesting than the article. From your link:
"These new "Heirlooms" will be patented if Monsanto is involved. Which means it will be ILLEGAL for you to save the seeds (if indeed they actually produce seeds). And if their patented gene gets in your Heirloom tomato varieties, even by accidental cross-polination, they can sue you. If you don't believe me, just Google Percy Schmeiser and Rodney Nelson."
I grow 40 to 50 varieties of Heirlooms and open pollinated tomatoes each year. What I'm looking for in my order of preference is taste, texture, productivity, and at least a little disease resistance. But before any of those considerations is the question "Can I save the seed and grow the same tomatoes in years to follow?"
The only reason I grow any F1 hybrids is for comparison to their dehybridized version.
Culture can make a world of difference in a variety. As an example, a neighbor who has his garden about a quarter mile from mine grows Big Beef f1 tomatoes each year. I grow a dehybridized version of Big Beef which is currently 12 generations removed from the f1. He grows his in a cage, doesn't prune and uses commercial fertilizer. I prune to 2 stems and trellis mine. The only fertilizer I use is the grass and weed clippings growing around the plants. Both tomatoes look and taste the same, but mine are ripe 3 weeks before his and while he has more tomatoes per vine, they are considerably smaller. The production is about the same in terms of pounds of fruit.
Commercial growers get paid by the number of pounds of marketable fruit they produce, not what it taste like and I don't think that will change. They don't gas green tomatoes to make them turn red because it improves the flavor. They all do it because it improves the marketablity of an inferior product. It doesn't just change the color, it also decreased the amount of time they have to warehouse them so they can get green tomatoes to market sooner.
Sandy, I've been growing Prudens Purple for several years and it is an excellent tomato. I've noticed some varieties are more sensitive to the temperature when the blossom is fertilized. Early blossoms tend to procuce more cat-faced and irregular fruit because of poor pollination caused by cooler temps and the same thing happens to some degree when the nights stay too hot.
Your zone is much cooler than mine and that might account for the difference you're seeing in the fruit. Mine are mostly smooth and pretty uniform in size. One thing you might try is to remove fused blooms and as soon as the tomatoes have set, remove any which show signs of cat-facing or irregularity, allowing the plants to put their energy into the remaining fruit. You should get about the same pounds. Try it with one and compare it to the others.
Also if you think the seed is a problem PM your address and I' send you some of mine. You should still have plenty of time to get them started. Claud
Compare the picture in this link:
http://t.tatianastomatobase.co...
Most of mine look like this:
