One thing I love about the farmers’ market is the heirloom tomatoes. One farmer in particular sells lots of heirloom varieties. When you see them, if you’ve grown up with mild-mannered homogeneous grocery store tomatoes, your first thought will be along the lines of “I don’t know about those tomatoes. They’re kinda ugly.” They’re not perfectly round. Their skins look blemished. The colors range from normal (red) to weird (purple and green).
I decided to get all four varieties of heirlooms this week. I was planning to try them and figure out which one I liked best. There was a big, beautiful Brandywine, some Bulgarian and Hungarian heirlooms, and a zebra tomato. I don’t know which was which with the Bulgarian and Hungarian, but it was one of those I loved. And guess what?
It was the ugliest tomato. Purple and green. Looked plain weird to my grocery store trained eyes. But I tasted it and it was the most amazing tomato. Such a wonderful tomato flavor, just sweet enough, just sour enough, just salty enough.
All my heirloom tomatoes are now part of a huge bowl of salsa fresca. They are mingling with some onion, 3 jalepenos (no seeds!!!), some cilantro, lime juice, and salt. Today they will be a delicious part of the most awesomest dinner ever. Quesadillas with fresh salsa FTW!
Next week I plan to buy a whole bunch of those ugly tomatoes. They are so good!
I also got figs. Never had figs before. I didn’t even know what they were until the farmer told me. He let me try one. They are really sweet and juicy, so I bought three and ate them up this morning. So good.
I love my farmers’ market!