Here in Zone 4, we have to wait until July to get the real ones.

For winter.

We canned tomato juice, tomato basil soup and we even canned green tomato salsa with the tomatoes that were still green but about to be destroyed by autumn frost.

We also freeze a lot of them. Just blanch them, remove the skins, put them in freezer bags and then freeze them. They will be used for winter cooking, like chili, spaghetti sauce, pizza sauce, etc.

Even though I only actually pick them for a few months in the summer, I rarely buy a tomato year-round.

I refuse to buy winter tomatoes. Not that it was much to give up, they never did have flavor anyways, and once I started to grow my own, and eat them right from the sunny plant, the winter ones taste even worse.

on the way from Mexico aren't worth bothering with. I hit the Farmer's Market every week in the summer for local, vine-ripened ones--they bear little resemblance and taste to the mealy ripened-while-shipped ones.

And I freeze them. I may never have a fresh tomato all winter, but I still have vine-ripened ones to use in all my cooking until the next summer.

I'm so happy for you. I chose this 4 season climate; but you are very lucky to have such a growing season that you can have fresh tomatoes in February!

I'm not up on varieties that are good down south, but "mortgage lifter" is a very reliable one.