I love tomatoes, finally the summer vegetables that I really like are coming into season; tomatoes and corn.

Forget the kale and other green stuff I can't identify. When it comes to summer eating you can't beat a giant beefsteak tomato and a simple salt shaker. I can literally bite into one like an apple and eat my way through it. Yum!

I'd been doing this for years, never knowing it was an old Swedish tradition. I happen to be half Swedish and never knew about the tomato tradition until recently, when my mother was remembering her years growing up in Sweden. She went into detail how she loved eating fresh tomatoes that way.



Early in the season, before the Jersey tomatoes invade, is a good time to sample some of the heirloom tomatoes grown on the East End.

Heirloom tomatoes are tomatoes grown and handed down by people who have saved the seeds over years time, specifically for their taste.  Heirloom varieties are handed down from gardener to gardener to gardener from their seeds.

The tomatoes sold in supermarkets are called hybrids, they cannot be re-seeded. If you tried to plant the seeds from a supermarket variety it would not grow. That's how they're engineered.

While many people buy heirlooms for their taste, they are more expensive then most and don't last as long on store shelves. They've been bred for great taste but are less disease resistant than store bought varieties, which can sit on store shelves for a longer time.


    Heirloom Tomatoes at Long Season Farms in Aquebogue

I bought my first heirlooms last week at Long Season Farms. The cherry tomatoes came in a variety of colors and were sweet and juicy, I couldn't stop popping them into my mouth.

I also splurged on a gigantic golden medal, a large yellow heirloom tomato with red streaks in it.  It was so big my husband and I had it for lunch, I'm not kidding. We sliced some mozzarella cheese, cut up the tomato and ate them with a glass of wine, it was delicious! 

I'm going to try the green variety next week or maybe the purple one? I can't decide. They're juicy and meaty all the time, each bite you take is as good as the last one. We're even saving some of the seeds to see if we can grow them next year.