Crack resistant varieties

I had a neighbor in East Texas who had a huge tomato, corn, and okra garden. He had a small sign next to his driveway which said "Fresh Vine Ripened Tomatoes". The sign had his phone number on the bottom. I stopped one day for a few lbs of those delicious "Vine Ripened" tomatoes. His plants were grown in tall cages. He probably had twenty rows of cages with each row being 40' long. The plants were all taller than my head and I am 6'4" tall. It was like walking in a tomato jungle with huge tomatoes hanging all over the vines in various stages of ripeness.

Each morning, he would walk the rows with five gallon buckets harvesting the ripe tomatoes which he would then carry to a small shed in his back yard. His cell phone was ringing constantly with people ordering tomatoes by the lb, the five gallon bucket full, or by the bushel. He sold all his tomatoes for $1.00 per lb. He would then label the containers with the customers name and the price for the container full of tomatoes. People were calling all day in order for their tomatoes to be ready for pickup when they got off work. He told me most of his customers bought large quantities for canning. When I took my few home anticipating the taste of fresh, home grown tomatoes, I understood why they bought them to can. They tasted like pretty, red, cardboard. Every beautiful tomato was a total spitter.

Ted