Mokum carrots,
Sweet Million cherry tomatoes,
and Magnifisweet cantaloupe.

Everything else is negotiable.

Zipper Cream Southern Peas, Sugar Snap Peas, Evergreen white bunching onions (plant once, grow for years). coriander (plant once..self seeds for years), Globe and Thai basil, Waltham broccoli, Odoriko tomato, Kennebeck potato, Red Pontiac potato, Tam jalapeno, Red Beauty Pepper, Blushing Beauty Hybrid Pepper (Never green..ivory turns light red, orange-red, then scarlet,Senorita hybrid jalapeno, ginger root, Ichiban eggplant, Fordhook 242 lima beans. These are some of the things I plant again and again.

Bright Lights Swiss Chard
Hungarian Yellow Wax Peppers
Sugar Snap peas
Tuscany Tomatoes (for now)

That's about it. very willing to try new things, space and sunshine permitting.

Reading this has made me hungry!
corn-Oh So sweet
peas-Mr. Big
pumpkins-Howdens
Lettuce, I like the pinetree mix, and so do my neighbors I share it with.
Leeks-lancelot

These varieties just seem to do well for me. we tried some other kinds of corn and they never did very well. same with the peas. The only new thing we are growing this year, and for the first time ever, is zuccini. Striata d'italia.

All the herbs, especially basil, thyme, oregano, and dill.
Sweet million tomatoes
Lettuce of all kinds
Those thin french green beans I can never pronounce
Okra--about the only thing I fry but they are so darn good!
And lots of "everything" else. I switch around the rest of the vegies every year depending on mood and what I think will work.

Things I will always grow:

Carrots
Basil
Lettuce
Tomatoes
Potatoes
Onions
Snow Peas
Shell Peas
Snap Beans

The varieties may change depending on seed availability, and whether I have room. I will MAKE room for Oxheart carrots, Big Rainbow tomatoes, Chadwick Cherry tomatoes, any kind of potato, snow peas, and snap beans.

These are the veggies my family will actually eat (the carrots are "iffy" because the kids know they come out of the ground, but the kids have no problems eating potatoes).

Things I continue to grow because they continue to show up: chives, parsley, lemon balm, strawberries; and invading from the neighbour's side: oregano and peppermint.

I love to try new varieties but every year these old favorites find their way into the garden:
Roma, Delicious, Large Red Cherry, and Ildi tomatoes
Green Arrow peas
Black seeded Simpson and Red Sails lettuce
Early Contender Bush Bean

I absolutely love "Viva Italia" Roma type tomatoes. They taste great and make great ketchup.

I also love "False Alarm" hot peppers. We grew them last year and made awesome poppers. They have the Jalapino taste without too much heat. We have a bunch under lights in our spare room growing now!

Varieties I already grow/know and love:

Brandywine/Sungold tomatoes; favorites of mine and anyone who tastes them
Thai basil/ tarragon/cilantro
Romano/fava Windsor/Trionfo violetto/ Yard long beans
Burgundy okra: small yields but boy are they beautiful
Malaysian and Burpless cukes
Early Dividend broccoli: best tasting
Seed savers exchange heirloom mix: the most beautiful and best tasting varieties
Pinetree looseleaf lettuce mix
Arugula, regular and wild: never without
Yukon gold or Yellow finn potatoes
Mizuna
Black kale
Turnip greens
Shallots
Cocozelle zucchini
also:
Nicotiana alata/ langsdorfii
Evening primrose
Veronicas
Sedums
Bee balms: for the hummingbirds
any and all flowering vines, especially if they are fragrant

And trying these new varieties this year:

Shiso Britton: green on top; red underside
Red gold potato
Principe borghese tomato: original sun dried variety
Purple brussel sprouts
Cabbage mix: includes coneheaded variety. can't wait to see that
Armenian and Suhyo long cukes: should make great pickles
Frisee
Deep purple scallions
Cha cha kabocha
Eight ball zucchini
Scallopini pattypan squash
Stevia/ angelica gigas (amazing looking)

also:
Lewisia
Mangobrite echinacea: new this year
Exotic coleus varieties
Betty Corning clematis: fragrant
Clethra
Crazy daisy
new Orange Evening primrose

Zephyr Squash & Matt's Wild cherry tomatoes

For Walleye: email me off line for some info on heirloom variety sources
ardisjill@yahoo.com

My absolute favorite tomato is Rose de Berne. It is pink with the most complex, delicious flavor I've ever tasted. We bought seedlings from a local organic farm last summer and will grow them from now on. Here's the Tomato Supply Company's Description: (Mid Season) A lovely name describes this very beautiful dark pink tomato that is shaped like a perfect globe, smooth and round with no blemishes. Fruits are medium size, 6 to 8 ozs., and boast flavor that is as impressive as its pretty appearance. These tomatoes have a thin skin, are juicy, and filled with sweet flavor that is wonderfully balanced with a bit of zing. Very productive plants yield a heavy crop. Swiss heirloom. Indeterminate. 75 days. Try it!

Scott Meyer did us a favor by posting a direct link to this thread in the monthly E-Almanac mailing from OG magazine.

I see it has worked, several first-time posters on this topic within a day of his E-Almanac being sent.

Hope all you new posters like what you see and come back to visit regularly. Some of you are obviously tomato afficianados (which are always welcome here)!

Homestead tomatoes, plus the Brandywines, red, pink, and yellow. I've tried the potato-leafed variety as well as the white variety-neither did well.
California Wonder bell peppers.
Italian parsley
I have an everwidening patch of Egyptian onions, thanks to my sister-in-law.
Detroit Red beets
Pumpkins-usually sugar pie, but have had good luck w/ Lumina.
This year, I'm going to grow Lakota squash instead of acorn squash.
I've been leaning more toward heirlooms, but living in a woods makes it a little hard to have a great garden. Too many black walnut trees, I think. Being ever hopeful, I keep trying.

Oh, my! What a challenging and intriguing question. I was delighted to find that so many of our "can't do withouts" are shared by others! Here are a few I didn't see mentioned already:

We've been growing scarlet runner beans on our garden fence since 1988. This prolific, heirloom seed-saver features long racimes of edible orange-red flowers that attract hummingbirds and other pollinators, add beauty to floral arrangements or perk up a tossed salad. Young 6" bean pods are best "frenched", and have a succulent nutty flavor, holding that "fresh grown" taste after months in the freezer. Can't be beat! Larger bean pods can be diagonally cut (like italian beans). The mature beans can be used green (actually pink and black) or dried for soup thickener. Picked regularly, they continue to flower and bear from mid July until frost!

Also on my list of "stopped experimenting here" is LUTZ winterkeeper, also called LUTZ greenleaf beets. Wash, steam and eat the thinnings, pick leaves from the outside edges to toss into salad or use as a potherb. The sweet purple beets get even sweeter after the frost, never get fibrous, and keep in the rootcellar (or refrigerator)for months!

Granlibakken Kolhrabi gets room in our garden every year because it matures quickly when seeded direct and doesn't get fibrous as it matures.

We grow several varieties of potates, but if we had only room for one, it would be Rose Finn Apple fingerlings!

Other dependables in this Zone 4 frost pocket include prolific, double-podding, Green Arrow garden peas and the 6' vining Super Sugar snap peas that we grow on a bean tower -- both of which continue to bear well into summer -- must be the cool nights.