A tomato question I almost dread to ask.

[HopeHoops]

2. It really depends on the spring.

If there's too much rain, fuck trying to deal with heirlooms. Hybrids like Celebrity and all of the cherry-style (like Sweet 100) do great. Heirlooms like dryer soil at the beginning of the season and will get blossom end rot quickly if their feet are damp. Personally, I like the black and purple varieties for flavor, but they look like a mess of dog shit when canned. The only thing I bother to can are sauce tomatoes. They tend to do well in any sort of weather. We eat all of the "sandwich" tomatoes and my middle daughter picks the cherry style plants clean. To be fair, she does bag a lot of them, along with her strawberries, but still eats most of them. I like making a simple Caprice salad with tiny fresh mozzarella balls, balsamic vinegar, olive oil, and fresh herbs from the garden (mostly basil and oregano). That doesn't last long in the refrigerator. It doesn't go bad - it doesn't have TIME to go bad in our house.