It makes no difference if you call it toe-MAY-toe or toe-MAH-toe, it is a major staple in our veggie garden. We love it fresh, sliced and raw. Sylvia might add a bit of sugar. I’ll give it a bit of salt and hit it with pepper. Refreshing, clean taste.
Best of all it is BLT time. I don’t like store-bought tomatoes for this treat. Only our own, fresh from the garden will do. Accept no substitutes.
Oh tomato, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
- Raw and eaten while standing in the garden with juicing dripping from the chin
- Raw and sliced on a plate or in a BLT
- Juice (Sylvia has put up several jars of this and the following too)
- Diced
- Tomato sauce
- Spaghetti sauce
- and my very favorite . . . SALSA!
Those may look like some mild jalapeños in that jar of salsa. Don’t be fooled. Those are Serrano peppers, which are about five times as hot as jalapeños and about ten times cooler than habaneros. This year’s salsa is a big hit for us. We’d rank it about medium to medium-hot. Perfect! The proof is in how fast the first batch disappeared–never made it into the jar.
Our jalapeños didn’t fare so well this year. It must have been all the rain. We even had to buy some to enjoy Sylvia’s poppers.
Anyone for nachos?
That bottle of tomatoes looks great.
It is always good to have one.
That bottle contains hot salsa, which is mostly tomatoes. And, as you say, “It is always good to have one.”
Yum! We’ve frozen a lot of ours for chili this winter. I love garden tomatoes, so we try to save some for the winter when the store bought are so horrid.
We have a multitude of tomato-filled jars. Several different varieties and for the reason that you do. Store-bought tomatoes are not very nice. Fresh, picked ripe tomatoes are wonderful. Also they are very versatile.