The last group you mentioned is a good group. I always grow Cherokee Purple. I haven't grown Early Girl and Celebrity in a while but many do and they usually do good around here. Celebrity does have a lot of disease resistance. From your first group you have a good selection. I've grown Arkansas Traveler a few times. It doesn't like my conditions as well as some do but a nice tomato with moderate production for me. I've seen several on the forums who get good production from it. Carbon is one of my favorites that does well here. I'm assuming the Red Beefsteak is a Bonnies plant as they offer one called that. I bought is late after I lost some plants a few years ago. Didn't get a fair shot but was still a nice mater and one I would grow again if needed. Mortgage Lifter has never did well here for me. Again remember I'm extreme SW KS with very difficult growing conditions. Extremely low humidity and dry here. Lemon Boy has good production but not my favorite yellow but sure not bad. Like I said you have a nice collection. Hope they all do well for you. And as for flavor you will never know till you try them. Jay

Sammy,

Here's a few comments on the ones you have:

Arkansas Traveler--a long-time favorite of ours. Produces mid- to late-season here which is nice because it is giving you ripe tomatoes after some of the earlier ones have been shut down by heat. Very good flavor and a good producer in heat.

Yellow Plum--haven't grown it

Lemon Boy--the first non-red, non-pink tomato I ever grew, probably back in about 1995 or 1996. Very good flavor unlike some yellow varieties that seem bland. Produces very well in heat and has fairly good disease resistance.

Husky Red Cherry--I grow this one every year simply because it is available as large transplants in Dallas stores in February when I am buying a handful of plants for containers so I can have extra-early tomatoes. Flavor is only average and I don't like the thick skins, but DH eats them happily all summer long. It is a good one for containers. When I grow it in containers it gets about 4' tall and almost as wide. The very thick foliage helps prevent sunscald. Produces large red cherry tomatoes. This generally is the earliest to produce for us, and just this week I have begun harvesting ripe fruit from it. The two that I have in 3-gallon pots are loaded with fruit, but they cannot survive the summer in 3-gallon pots and I'm getting ready to transplant them into either larger containers or into the ground.

Porter's Dark Cherry--I've grown Porter (pink, great flavor, sort of egg-shaped, and almost too big to be considered a cherry type) and Improved Porter (red, rounder, about 4-5 oz. tomatoes) ever since I was in high school in the 1970s. Both were among the varieties introduced decades ago by the now-defunct Gene Porter & Sons seed company based in Stephenville, Texas.

I believe Porter Dark Cherry is just a re-named version of Porter, and folks who have grown the two side-by-side say they believe that is true as well. I grew up where Porter seeds and transplants were sold and remember both 'Porter' and 'Improved Porter' well but don't remember a 'Porter Dark Cherry' being in existence then. I used to see 'Porter' on the store shelves all the time, but the last couple of years it seems to have disappeared and to have been replaced with 'Porter's Dark Cherry' which leads me to think it was just renamed.

Porter produces better in heat than most, resists disease, produces heavily most of the time, and has flavor more like large slicers than like other cherry types. You won't find a more heat-tolerant or drought-tolerant tomato.

Sweetie--There isn't necessarily anything specific about this tomato that stands out in my mind. It is your typical heavily-producing red cherry with very sweet flavor.

Red Beefsteak--There are different red beefsteaks sold under this name, unfortunately, and that can lead to confusion. The 'Red Beefsteak" I grow produces fruit very much like Red Ponderosa that are big, beefsteak-shaped, red, produced in clusters of 3 or 4 all over the plant, have thick, rampant foliage and produces well until the heat hits and shuts it down. Fruit has good flavor in a dry year, but in a very wet year or with very heavy irrigation, the flavor and texture suffers. That is true of most large-fruited beefsteak types though. I think of Red Beefsteak as the classic sandwich tomato.

Carbon--This is a black tomato with nice, smooth fruit and very good flavor. Produces well in heat.

Juliet--Another thick-skinned type but it produces heavily and the flavor is typical grape tomato flavor. In the years when I grow these, I use them only for dehydrating because dried tomatoes have tough skin anyway so their thick skin isn't a problem if you're dehydrating them.

Radiator Jimmy (Charlie's) Mortgage Lifter--You said 'Jimmy' but I assume you mean "Charlie's". This is my second-favorite version of Mortgage Lifter. It produces well and has great flavor and moderate disease resistance. I always grew this one every year until I planted Estler's Mortgage Lifter, which I find has flavor my taste buds like more and produces earlier and more heavily in my garden. Radiator Charlie's is a great tomato for our climate even though I now prefer Estler's Mortgage Lifter.

Cherokee Purple--one our favorites too

Early Girl--This one has typical hybrid flavor and great disease resistance. I call her 'Late Girl' in my garden because she never produces early for me. I usually get ripe fruit from EG about the same time I'm getting ripe fruit from Celebrity or Better Boy, no matter if I used home-grown or purchased transplants and no matter the seed source. I don't know why she isn't early for me. However, many years, Early Girl produces for at least six months and is often one of only a handful of plants setting new fruit in mid-July through late August when the heat is at its worst.

Celebrity--Better flavor than some other hybrids and an amazing tolerance of or resistance to many diseases and to nematodes as well. There are a handful of red hybrids I like better in terms of flavor (Better Boy, Boy Boy, Big Beef and Beemaster among them), but this is an excellent variety for our climate.

There are lots of ways to freeze tomatoes, and I use various ones.

You can pick and wash the tomatoes and put them into zip-lock freezer bags whole and intact. When you are ready to use them, just thaw them. Some people use this method to accumulate enough tomatoes to cook up a big batch of sauce or salsa.

You can pick and wash the tomatoes, remove their skins using the boiling water method, and freeze them whole but skinless.

You can remove the skin and, if desired, the seeds, and cook these down into stewed tomatoes to freeze to use in cooking.

You can pick and wash the tomatoes, process and cook into salsa and freeze it in freezer jars or contaienrs, or process and cook it into tomato sauce and freeze it in freezer jars or containers.

Dawn