Know Your Tomatoes

I have been known to eat Tommy toes like candy, right off the vine in the garden. I like my tomatoes warm from the sun and dead ripe. The ones we get in the grocery store hardly apply but if you must get them from the store, put them in a brown paper bag and lay them out on the counter for a couple of days and they will have more flavor. I like tomatoes sandwiches too. Get two slices of whole wheat bread and spread mayonnaise on one side of bread. Lay on slices of tomato and top with other slice of bread. Now have a taste of heaven. Don't know beans about tomatoes! There is hope for you yet. Did you know tomatoes are called a vegetable so tax could be placed on it, otherwise it would be called a fruit. The identity crisis came in an 1893 Supreme Court ruling that classified tomato as a vegetable so it could be taxed under tariff law.

Tomatoes were thought to be poisonous when Robert Gibbon Johnson brought them to Salem N.Y.from Europe in the early 1800's. To prove they were not poison, Johnson ate a basket of them at the court house in front of a disbelieving crowd.

Believing tomatoes had aphrodisiac qualities the French called them "love apples" from the 1600's till the modern French word "tomate" became more commonly used.

Know your tomatoes:

1. Brandywine (Miss Popularity) is a pinkish red color, a popular Amish heirloom from the 1800's prized for its strong tomato flavor. It is sweet with a lot of juice.
2. Ugly Ripe (Inner Beauty) is red, developed in response to the supermarket tomato, takes it name from the pleats facing the stem. Known as cat facing or monkey facing, is sweet juicy and tender.
3. Green Zebra (Bright and Tangy) is green with darker stripes, has a real tomato flavor and is tangy and sweet.
4. Wonder Light (Yellow for Cooking) also known as a plum lemon, should be used for cooking not slicing. Not a lot of juice and not much flavor.
5. Vintage Wine (Striped Stunner) pink with golden stripes, prized fro gourmet grocers for its visual appeal, mild and slightly sour.
6. Roma (Best for Cooking) red, meaty texture is good for cooking, has little flavor
7. Zapotac (Show Stopper) reddish pink, Grown by the Zapata Indians of Mexico, has a mild sweet flavor, pleats turn to scalloped edges when sliced.
8. Orange Tomato (Sun Kissed) yellow, less acid than red tomatoes, sweet
9. Red Cherry (Best in Winter) tiny and red, sweet and watery, best used in winter.
10. Sun gold Cherry (Sweet Candy) small, gold color, high sugar content
11. Purple Cherokee (Balancing Act) purple, juicy and sweet with slight bitterness, very meaty
12. Supermarket Red (Style no Substance) red, valuable for firmness and color, mild and slightly sweet
13. Yellow Pear Cherry (Outer Beauty) small and yellow, pear shaped, mild
14. Garden Peach (Pretty as a Tomato) pale yellow, mildly acidic and juicy.

Now you know your tomatoes. Go out and buy some to make delicious juicy sandwiches and put them in your salads and sauces. Serve up slices on your dinner plate; put them in casseroles and all manner of good things to eat. They are full of vitamins and have very few calories or carbs. Happy, healthy eating to you and yours.