For those of you who don’t like the red fruit I apologize. And I know you are out there. Just check tomatoesareevil.com for fascinating facts. Like for a long time tomatoes were not eaten by Europeans but grown as ornamental plants and considered fit only for wild animals.
Hence the scientific name of Lycopersicon or “wolf peach”.
There is also a lot of nonsense about the poor tomato being poisonous. So I know there are those of you who do not share my enthusiasm for Beefsteaks or Big boys or any of the other more than 300 varieties of the delicious fruit.
The brief window is open now. From early August thru mid September the tomato season in Northeast Pa. is ripe. It’s no accident that the Pittston tomato festival takes place right in the middle of August. Pittston of course has laid claim to be the tomato capitol of the world. Something to do with the soil. They have so many of the little red fellers that they stage a tomato fight.
But to me the idea of a tomato fight is just too horrifying to contemplate. I wait all year for real tomatoes. During the off season tomatoes are hard little flavorless lumps. The cardboard they are packed in has more flavor. For about 6 weeks locally grown tomatoes are bursting with taste, juice and are just waiting for a slice of someone’s home baked bread and a pinch of salt.
My older sister loved tomatoes so much that she often used to go to pick your own place armed only with a salt shaker. Her joke was she would ask them to weigh her before and after her visit to the fields.
She claimed she would pay the difference.
As a confirmed tomatoholic I know where she was coming from.
