A couple of other tips you could pass on to those new to canning or those not current with the guidelines may find helpful: 1 - by far the most popular method of canning tomatoes is called Crushed Tomatoes with no added liquid for the best over-all quality and unlimited utility. The instructions are also in all the Ball Canning books. 2 - rather than using the old "dip in boiling water to peel" method many have shifted to the recommended "freeze whole for min. of 48 hours" method. Just fill a big bag with whole tomatoes and set it in the freezer. When thawed the skins sip right off easily. Some core the fruit first, some don't. Much less time consuming, easier peeling, and less heat in the kitchen. I would disagree with euarto that big beefsteaks are mostly juice but I suppose that would depend on how one raised them. And of course if you just drain any tomatoes before jarring you eliminate most of the juice and cut any cooking time by half. Again you'll find much more about all this over on Harvest if interested. Heirlooms: (#1)Cherokee Purple, (#2)Brandywine, Mr Stripey (blah), Yellow Pear, (yucko) (#3)Hillbilly Hybrids: (2) Big Boy, (1)Better Boy, Celebrity, Patio(cherry types), Grape, (6)Husky Cherry Red, (4)Early Girl, (5)Sweet Million and (3)Lemon Boy. I'd skip the rest. Dave

I ended up with a cherry fort - not a maze. The signif other decided to downsize the whole deal... so I ended up with a 10 X 10 area. We were starting with lawn... So I planted a tomato every 6-8 inches. I know inches... I put in: Gajo De Melon Suncherry red star sungold green doctors zebra cherry black cherry snow white Riesentraube OSU Blue Oh heavens, I'll have to go home and check again... there were others... I got a lot of people who wanted to donate seed, so I took them up on them and added them to the 'fort'. I have to take recent pictures, but this is what it looked like early on. I haven't been gung-ho on documenting this because I didn't want to document a complete failure if it happened... :) Then I went back to the original farm (without my camera) this weekend and they have extended their tomato maze - lots more varieties and much bigger this year... I will bring the camera next time I go. Again they told the kids "come back with your basket and belly full." SO cute and SO gets them excited about gardening. I want that!!! I'll take pictures tonight and post them tonight or tomorrow.

And who was the person who introduced Druzba in the US? Yes, me, read thelink below and it gets another vote from me as well. ( smile) But there are others , round red ones only now, that I like and they might include: Bulgarian Triumph Red Brandywine, only the true RL one Break O Day Lida Ukranian Red Barn ( flat globe) Bulgarian #7 ...... to name just a few and round of any color tend to have mid sized fruits, not as large as beefseak varieties. You can find info about all the OP ones that folks mention at Tatiana's superb website if you don't know them where she has traits of the varieties, comments from others, pictures, seed sources and histories when known; http://tatianastomatobase.com/wiki/Main_Page Carolyn Here is a link that might be useful: Druzba

tarolli -- Why not start another thread and let us know what tastes good to you. It doesn't have to be a cherry tomato. Sweet Million used to be one of my favourites and I would say that Gardener's Delight and the Sweet 100's taste similar. However, I'm looking for a spectacular taste in a cherry tomato. Perhaps you prefer the acidic ones, in which case Juliet F1 would be a good choice. Linda