It's tomato season and we're delighting in the tasty, juicy flavors of our homegrown tomatoes!
We have several varieties growing, and currently Camp Joy Cherry and Afghan are fully ripe and ready to eat.
CJ cherry has been a favorite of mine for several years. It's very vigorous and an early producer. This is our first year growing Afghan, having found these seeds at a seed exchange and we're loving it. They're also very vigorous and we could tell from the start. While all the other seedlings were still developing their first true leaves, Afghan was way ahead growing a full 5 inches already. And now at fruiting time, they continue to impress with their color and flavor. The color is a warm, orange-yellow and the flavor is sweet and subtly fruity...perfect for a summer salad!
This is the easiest salad to make, and very refreshing on a hot summer day like today (it's 98 degrees!).
I simply chopped up the cherry tomatoes and Afghan tomatoes. Then sliced the cucumbers (gifted to us from our gardening friends who have too many). I added ground cherries, which we have in ridiculous abundance. And I love including edible flowers whenever I can, so I added borage and calendula petals. For the dressing, I drizzled olive oil and St. John's wort vinegar (wildcrafted and homemade of course) with a dash of salt and pepper.
Voila! The yummiest, tastiest, most refreshing summer salad ever.
The key ingredient is fresh, vine-ripened, homegrown tomatoes. There really isn't a substitute for such depth and brightness of flavor.
As I savor every bite of the salad, I thought back to a time when I HATED raw tomatoes.
We rarely eat tomatoes raw in Vietnam and my first experience eating it like this was when I was en route to America. My dad and I were flying for the first time in our lives and we had a long layover in Japan. We walked around the seemingly endless airport looking for food to eat. At last we found a place with a very, very expensive salad in a small box.
My had had only $20 US dollars in his pocket at the time and we had no idea how long this journey would last, so this was a splurge. The cherry tomatoes in the box caught my dad's attention and he thought it was some exotic fruit that I'd like.
We both gleefully opened the box, sampling each ingredient - tasteless lettuce, a few sprigs of parsley, a small plastic bag of weird tasting cream (ranch dressing), tiny slivers of carrots, and saved for last...those perfectly round red fruits. I took one bite and spat it out. It was mealy, tasteless, gross.
So for years I avoided raw tomatoes. The few times I ventured to try again, usually at a salad bar, resulted in disappointment. I couldn't understand why anyone would eat a tomato raw.
Now, as I eat these fresh tomatoes we grew, I wonder how many children must be experiencing the same thing I did and wrinkled their nose at the idea of fresh vegetables?
It dawned on me that more is not more. More is actually less. We think more tomatoes in our store, available all the time, in unlimited supply, is better. But it's not. Having more tomatoes actually means less flavor, less quality, less nutrition, and less connection.
So would we be willing to give up the convenience of buying a tasteless tomato whenever we want to have a few tomatoes that taste amazing only in summer?
It's a difficult question if we are to be honest. But as I bite into our tomato, enjoying this abundance knowing full well it will be over in a couple months, I feel quite fulfilled. I realize, less is more.
There is absolutely nothing like fresh, handpicked fruits n vegetables straight from the garden to the kitchen and then onto the platter. Great post. Loved it.
That’s better!
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Tomatoes at best and mor👍so your Photography...impressed me 👍 Salads looks so fresh delicious..like to munch it right away..
What a wonderfully tasty looking salad @sagescrub. Do you grow the edible flowers too? 😊
Oh man!! So much build up for such a tasteless first experience. A funny memory none the less. Beautiful photos. -Aimee
That's one tasty looking salad, I just love the colors! I bet it tastes great, knowing that you've grown them yourself.
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STOPLooks very tasty.
Superb photos @sagescrub! Looks like Jerusalem Artichokes in the background? They are yummy. And the flowers beautiful. What a delicious selection of tomatoes. I agree. Why go convenience (and out of season) when you can eat flavourful tomatoes from your garden. My husband sometimes buys from the shops and the last batch he complained tasted like fish. GMO for sure. Horrible. Have you ever entered #fruitsandveggiesmonday? You photos and something like this colourful summer salad will be well received by @lenasveganliving