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Early Summer Tomato Fun

by · June 5th, 2009
Cooking, Farmer's Markets, Gardening, Participate!, Personal Story, Seasonality

 

tomato-box
Many fruits are symbolic of summer – watermelon, peaches, corn on the cob. But perhaps none so much as the juicy, ripe tomato. I associate late summer with slices of red tomato lightly salted, or diced tomatoes mixed with fresh corn, garlic and basil in a salad. This year, it seems, summer is early. Farmer’s Markets in Northern California often are a mix of seasons as it is – with most items stretching into the early and late sides of their seasons. But this year in particular, perhaps because of the unusual weather patterns, the market is a symphony of seasonal tones all blaring at once – dark leafy greens, succulent lettuce leaves, new potatoes, cherries, and on and on. It’s loud. But most surprising of all is the late May tomato. 
Last weekend, tomatoes were on sale for $2 per pound, if you bought ten pounds.  So of course my sweetie hauled home a flat of ten pounds of tomatoes on his bike, along with the rest of our produce for the week. That is half of them in the photo, above. The rest had already been turned into sauce for canning.

tomato-sauce2

And here is our back-deck tomato plant, now getting its first flowers. 

tomato-plant

Quick poll – tell us in comments section the price for heirloom, farmer’s market tomatoes in your town.

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4 Responses to “Early Summer Tomato Fun”

  1. rachel harkham Says:
    June 7th, 2009 at 5:27 pm

    Lovely post. I could really taste the delicious tomato dishes you were describing. Enjoy your tomatoes!

  2. Alana Says:
    June 7th, 2009 at 6:26 pm

    Two vendors were selling tomatoes at my farmer’s market in Seattle, for $4-6 per pound depending on the variety. So nice to get a taste of summer!

  3. Miri Levitas Says:
    June 9th, 2009 at 3:17 pm

    Your tomatoes look fantastic! I can’t wait for tomato season to be in full swing. There’s nothing I like more than some tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, sea salt, and good quality balsamic vinegar.

  4. Natasha Says:
    June 10th, 2009 at 3:17 pm

    Hi Delihlachka! What a musical post! And I have to say I did noticed that you are preserving food! I think i know what country influenced this habbit of yours?:)

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