Every year, my father would faithfully plant two or three tomato plants in our garden, nothing more. He never bothered with zucchini, sugar snap peas, or cucumbers that needed weeding or positioning on a trellis. His focus was solely on tomato plants. Because of his uncomplicated gardening approach, we were gifted with delicious, ruby red tomatoes throughout the summer season. We incorporated these fresh tomatoes into our meals, most notably our dinner-time BLTs – the meal I looked forward to the most.
It doesn’t hit me just how full of flavor these homegrown tomatoes are until I bite into one. They come in a variety of different sizes and types. You can easily enjoy cherry and grape tomatoes as a quick snack or mix them into pasta salads due to their convenient size. Roma tomatoes’ firm walls make them ideal for cooking. Then there are the heirloom tomatoes, which should be enjoyed in their simplest form, so their unique flavor isn’t masked.
If you’re on the hunt for some culinary inspiration, here are some simple recipes for you. They feature raw or slightly cooked tomatoes, perfect for relishing on those hot summer days.
