I've tried a few heirloom sweet corns. The only variety I can remember by name that I rejected (for flavor) was Country Gentleman. (It seemed pretty much like the pure "glue" taste to me at the time.) The two I might grow again are Golden Bantam and Ashworth. Ashworth made a wimpy plant, but it might have had slightly sweeter corn than Golden Bantam and it was extra early. I've gotten to where I prefer hominy from the local heirloom dent corn I grow, and I don't care as much for sweet corn any more, but after all these years I really ought to try some of the field corn I grow in the milk stage.

OK, so the next question is: are you buying seed, or are you going to buy plants from a nursery? If you are buying seed, I would recommend Heidi or New Zealand Paste, both very yummy, and both put out tons of tomatoes. If you are buying plants, look for any variety with the word "Heart" (Bull's Heart, Oxheart, etc.) because that will be one with good flavor, and a little on the dry side, which is best for cooking. Heart tomatoes don't have as great a yield, but what they do put out are delicious, for the most part. Most of California has nematodes in the soil, which in my experience most of the recommended "paste" tomatoes will greatly suffer, if not die from. If you do want to buy a "Roma" type hybrid from a nursery, look for one that has an "N", which means it tolerates nematodes, to some extent. Below is a discussion from the tomato board--but keep in mind most of those people are from the East Coast, with very different growing conditions than California, and so a lot of their favorites (Opalka) can't deal with the nematodes here so they die and/or might not taste the same. Carla in Sac Here is a link that might be useful: http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/tomato/msg092300242972.html

To make this thread more information-rich I would like to suggest that everyone who grows figs in the mid-atlantic area (Maryland, Virginia, DC, etc) or who previously grew figs in the this area (Gene, your legend lives on) post information on the figs that they grow/grew and their impressions. What varieties do well and which don't. Information on flavor, fruit color, cold hardiness, productivity, open/closed eye, resistance to splitting in wet weather etc. would be very welcome. I this regard, the information upthread on Chicago Hardy, VdB, and Battaglia is very interesting though I had previously heard from many sources that Chicago Hardy is one of the better tasting figs. As I mentioned upthread I grow VdB, Chicago Hardy, Mildenhall and Celeste. I will obtain Marseilles vs Black and Ronde de Bordeaux later in the spring. My figs are all too young to provide any useful information on at this point. Space is limited so I plan to growth them in containers another year and then decide which 2 or 3 to plant in the ground. I am open to collecting another one or two varieties if there is good evidence that they do well in Maryland. By the way, I would like to obtain Kathleen Black but so far haven't had luck finding it - if anyone could spare a cutting of this one I would be very grateful!

"What other varieties are there" See link below for a few. Off the top of my head, ones missing from the list: 7 Pot Douglah Chocolate 7 Pot Chocolate Bhut Jolokia Ethiopian Brown Berbere I'm sure there are many others. As for the Douglah I'll confess that it's the only pepper I sampled that I couldn't get into my mouth. I cut a small piece to sample and stabbed it with the point of my knife. As I was putting it into my mouth the piece fell onto my bottom lip. The second or two it was there was enough to set my face on fire, make my eyes tear up and caused my fight or flight instincts to kick in. I, without thinking chose flight. I ran for a tub of ice cream! I've been able to munch on Jolokias, 7 Pots, Scorpions, ButchTs and Morugas. The Douglah was the only one that slayed me. Bill