Heirloom Tomatoes ~ The Season's Finest

                                              

                                               

Summer's Finest ~ Heirloom Tomatoes
There's no doubt about it - the dog days of summer are here in all their glory! The farmers' markets are bursting at the seams with all sorts of wonderful, ripe produce. Even though I love corn on the cob, zucchini and fresh fuzzy peaches, I wait all year for the heirloom tomatoes to come to market. From almost white to the darkest purple and every hue in between, the color variations of heirloom tomatoes are truly amazing!

                                                                             

Ugly Tomatoes
Then there's the shapes! Some people call the Brandywine an "ugly" tomato. It really is one of the homeliest tomatoes I've ever seen! With its lumps and bumps and ugly spots, these are tomatoes only a mother could love! It's also one of the sweetest and tastiest tomatoes on earth! When I go to the market, I look for the real homely ones. The tomatoes I can make faces with. Silly, I know, but consider how many people stare at clouds, searching to find a face or bunny in them.

                                                                   

                                                                                                                                                         
                                                                       

Zebra's in all Colors!

The Green Zebras were especially wild. The color is almost the color of a lime except with stripes. Did you know they're green inside? There's a red variety also, (I think they call it a Speckled Roman) looking like a red zebra! I bought a few red Brandywines, a Paul Robeson, an Orange Blossom, a Cherokee Purple and a Bull's Heart. I just couldn't bring myself to buy a Persimmon, they were way too ugly! I kept seeing toothless old men with scrunched up faces in the tomatoes!

                                                                        

How Much are Heirloom Tomatoes?
I found out the hard way that heirloom tomatoes aren't cheap either. I don't know how much they are where you live, but here in Rhode Island they're selling for $4.50 a pound! Not really thinking too much about it, I brought my tomatoes to the girl behind the table. She weighed them up and announced the price - $9.75! YIKES! For Tomatoes??? I tucked my tail between my legs and dragged my purchase back to the car determined to make something delicious with them.

                                                                  

Heirloom Tomato Galette
And that's how the Savory Heirloom Tomato Galette with Red Onion Jam came to be. Read my last post and my recipe for my newest galette!

                                                                 

Comments

[Nate]

Those are some lovely love apples. $4.50 a pound is a bit steep though. Out here they're about $2 per pound at the peak of the season.

You should try growing some. The great thing about heirlooms is, they aren't hybrids so their seeds will stay true. You can save the seeds and start them next Spring.

[Denise]

Nice blog! very informative! hardly can see these in my country

[Kevin]

I can get containers that size of small heirlooms for $2-3 at the market here. The grocery stores have them for $6/lb!

It'll be hard to go back to regular tomatoes soon.