TOMATOES!!

Sorry for shouting, but I do get excited when the tomatoes start to ripen. Oh, I’ve had a few red tomatoes in my backyard garden and from my patio pot (planted during that “hot” spell in mid-March), but I’ve had to fight the squirrels for those. A naturalist I know says this is because of the drought—the squirrels are stealing them for the liquid they hold. I don’t know about that; I think I’ve been fighting squirrels for the produce of my backyard garden for many years, drought and wet.

But now the tomatoes are starting to come in at the CSA in goodly numbers, and I wasted no time in making one of the ones we got this morning into a bacon, lettuce, and tomato sandwich. I don’t think I need to post a recipe for that particular specialty; it’s pretty self-evident. I had local tomatoes and lettuce, bakery bread (no homemade bread left, dang), and homemade mayonnaise, so it was pretty delicious. And to be any more artisanal, I’d have to take up hog farming (I did get the bacon down at Gibbs’ stand at Findlay Market).

I plan to eat another tomato this evening with fresh mozzarella and basil, drizzled with olive oil and balsamic vinegar, and I may chop up another one to make some guacamole. Not quite enough yet for gazpacho, but that’s on my list to make soon—it’s one of my favorite summertime foods, and would be particularly tasty in this never-ending heat wave.

We got a lot of cucumbers today, too, and I may slice some of those up with tomatoes for a salad. Tomatoes served just about anyway will be on the menu (I hope) for weeks to come, and I’m looking forward to that.