A Conversation About Tomatoes

The glory of tomatoes. Now is the time to enjoy the supreme vegetable. Anyone who has had a garden knows the rush of pleasure from contemplating the perfect fat tomato in its splendor hanging on the plant. It can be in a five gallon bucket on a concrete urban patio or one of dozens on a giant bush in an immaculate vegetable garden a la the Godfather. It can be any of the myriad of garden styles in between.  But we have all experienced that moment in some form. For me, the next step is standing in front of the plant, bare toes digging into the warm soil of the garden. In one hand is a salt shaker. In the other is a warm-from-the-sun perfect tomato, its significant weight always a pleasant surprise. The flavor bursts forth, the perfection of a summer day. We’re only allowed this perfect moment once per summer, although less perfect encounters are always welcome, and frequent.

Every one of us has a favorite tomato. Some adore a cherry tomato like Sweet 100. Some are fans of the Burpee family of time tested tomatoes like Big Boy, Better Boy, Early Girl, etc. They are consistent producers with predictable sized plants and fruit. No surprises when they’re planted in your garden. Sauce tomatoes are in a class of their own. These are bred for their meaty texture and low water content for intense flavor. Canning and freezing is their fate. Many are legends, with an Italian background. San Marzano is one of the most acclaimed, and no second generation Italian is without stories of seed smuggled from the home town of his ancestors.4Some of us live for surprises. Tomato snobs among them, these are the growers of the famous Heirloom tomatoes. An heirloom is a tomato that has been passed down from gardener to gardener over generations (fifty years is one criterion.) The most famous of all is the Brandywine. In recent years there have been several similar tomatoes known as Brandywine type. The features of many tomatoes that qualifies them for the title of heirloom are these: indeterminate growth (the plants just keep getting taller and bigger all season); leaves that look more like potatoes than tomatoes; they produce various colors of flesh depending on variety (classic Brandywine is pink); the tomatoes are not the predictable size and shape of the hybrids you might expect; because they are open pollinated, the yield might vary from season to season, so encourage all those happy pollinator insects. Oh, and they’re not pretty. Some are shaped more like a pumpkin than a tomato. But the taste is amazing.

And speaking of amazing, listen to Episode 80 of “Nature Calls, Conversations from the Hudson Valley”, the podcast about all things nature. Author Miriam Rubin talks about growing and cooking tomatoes. She has a wonderful sandwich called “the Vicksburg Tomato Sandwich” for special occasions. It’s a twist on our own classic tomato sandwich. You know, the one with a huge slice of tomato on white bread with mayo and salt and pepper… AKA the “stand over the sink to eat” sandwich. I can taste it now, including that little soggy bit of bread stuck on the back of a tooth! Grab the salt shaker, take off your shoes and go savor some summer.