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Ready for a Good Tomato
Most Sunday mornings, I go to the Hollywood Farmer’s Market, which is one of the best in L.A. and near my neighborhood. At 8:30 am, it’s already buzzing. Walking amidst the produce makes me calm, especially this time of the year when stands are bursting with the spring harvest. Cherry tomatoes have begun to crop up (so to speak), but they haven’t peaked yet. I’ve been sampling them, hoping this will be the week. But it takes patience. We’re very close. I can almost taste it.
Photo by Emily Blincoe
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Shopping at my local farmers market is part of my Saturday morning ritual in the summer. We are not even close to good tomatoes yet, so I envy you, Wendy! But I’ve eaten much more than my share of roasted local asparagus (love it so much that I rarely prepare it any other way!) And I’ve certainly used the rhubarb bounty as well (canned some strawberry-rhubarb jam and pie filling, made and froze some rhubarb syrup, and chopped some rhubarb and put it in the freezer). But tomatoes? Ahhh. I so look forward to that season (a piece of good bread, smeared with homemade duck-egg mayonnaise and topped with sliced local tomatoes–my idea of summer heaven!)
How do you enjoy using your tomatoes, Wendy?
My favorites are the sweet 100’s, the really small cherry tomatoes. I eat them in a salad, or on their own with a little olive oil and salt and pepper. But I also slow roast both the small ones and the larger heirlooms to use in sauce or beside some Bufalo mozzarella.
Oh Petra – that sandwich sounds like my kind of heaven. I don’t even know what duck-egg mayo would taste like…but the idea of fresh mayo with slice of tomato that is warmed *just so* from the sun. Oh man…that is summer.
Is duck egg mayo richer?
Petra, I too am curious about the Duck egg mayo. Do you prefer it and if so why? I do love homemade mayo!
Gorgeous! Few things are as beautiful to me as vine-ripened heirloom tomatoes of all shapes, sizes, and colors. There is a bin full of them in my grocery store called “ugly tomatoes.” I have been buying a lot of “ugly fruit” straight from farms :-).
In my experience, we start to get the really sweet ones in July. But I’ve been seeing more and more in the market.
One of my earliest food memories is my mother’s tomatoes grown on Cape Cod. How she grew these delicious beauties in that sandy soil I don’t know. Warmed by the summer air, seemingly slightly salty from the ocean breezes and sweet beyond belief, these were the best tomatoes I’ve ever had. She’d serve them straight from the vine, sliced on a platter, drizzled with olive oil, a sprinkle of salt and healthy grind of pepper. Pure summer magic.
You’re making me drool.