Tomato Time!

THIS is what we wait for all winter long:  just picked heirloom tomatoes, each with its own unique shape and shade, but all so sweet and flavorful you want to inject them in every dish possible. 

It’s hard to believe that the tomato was once considered taboo. Along with potatoes, eggplants and red peppers, tomatoes belong to the nightshade family, which also includes some poisonous plants. When Spanish conquistadors brought them back to Spain from Mexico in the 16th century, the rest of Europe would have nothing to do with them. 

It wasn’t until the 19th century that the rest of the continent began to accept this fruit parading as a vegetable, though just barely. Tomatoes were most often cooked for at least three hours to be considered safe and edible. Some consider this blasphemy.

“A cooked tomato is like a cooked oyster, ruined,” said the famous French food writer André Simon. Indeed it's hard to beat the pleasure of eating a perfectly ripe tomato sprinkled with Maldon salt and a simple basil leaf or a drizzle of quality olive oil, like Agape's Premium EVOO. There’s a reason tomato sandwiches are a thing.  A real Southern Tomato Sandwich is made with white bread, but if you're lucky enough to have Bien Cuit Bakery in your midst, make yours on two slices of their pain de mie. For something more rustic, try it open-faced on a coarse slice of miche bread from either Bien Cuit or Wave Hill Breads.

Purists of course will keep it simple, as in this head-turning heirloom tomato salad which lets a medley of tomatoes have their rightful moment in the spotlight.

If you tire of salads, but crave that raw tomato flavor, consider making this yellow gazpacho,  So many beautiful breads at the market would turn this summer soup into a meal.

If you must cook a tomato in summertime, tread lightly as in this lovely and super easy tomato tart. Serve with some beautiful market greens on the side and you’ve got dinner on the table in a snap.

Snap peas are here and you must enjoy them with one of Saha Guys’ earthy Mediterranean spreads.  Here's a tomato-less dish that will wow your guests: burrata with crushed cherries and pistachios. 

And please grab some of those rosy apricots at Mead Orchards to make this luscious apricot clafoutis. For our gluten-free shoppers, please stop by the Mayfield Farms Bakery tent for some pretty special almond-flour desserts, including a smashing olive oil cake. Top it with some deliciously creamy goat-milk yogurt from Sugar Shack Creamery, back this week with their line of goat-milk products from spreadable chèvre with fig jam, to drinkable yogurts.

We have a guest ceramicist this weekend who makes truly beautiful, one-of-kind pieces in very cool colors. Please give Ariella Ceramics  a warm welcome.

Local musical wunderkind Jasper Zimmerman needs no introduction. He’s gracing us with another visit before he heads off to college. 

And The Fearless Cook Food truck is here, so you know breakfast at the market will be delicious and fun.

See you at the market!