Green Zebra. Mr. Stripey. Cherokee Chocolate. Sungold. Yellow Pear. The delicious Russian heirlooms, Azoychka and Noir de Crimee. Yes, it's heirloom tomato time, and that means that bowl of diced multi-colored tomatoes in the middle of the dinner table, either left plain in its juices or tossed with a little balsamic vinegar, celebrates daily the decadent, glorious abundance of Now.
According to the Department of Agriculture, the United States produces 3.7 billion pounds of fresh market tomatoes each year. The top states, in order, are: Florida, California, Virginia, Georgia, Ohio, Tennessee, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and South Carolina. Move over, boiled peanuts. The South is turning out those tomatoes in record number right now.
No matter where you are, if you are lucky enough to know a farmer who grows heirloom tomatoes, those tender, often colorful and uniquely-shaped beauties grown from seeds carried by immigrants in their pockets on ships across oceans (or so I like to imagine), ask about his or her varieties. If your farmer is like Bill Yoder, who grows about 200 different types of heirloom tomatoes, his eyes will get big and he will lean forward, cupping the tomato in question in his hand, and tell you its life story as if he is telling you the secrets of life. Because, frankly, he is.
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