What to eat now: Jersey tomatoes

I never really enjoyed tomatoes until a few years ago. There was something about the seeds and the tomato juice that literally made me gag. I never understood it. Finally, after some bravery I discovered the role one tomato can play in a sandwich, a salad, or even just sliced with a little salt and pepper. A tomato can give a nice complimentary taste to the other ingredients in a meal. Now I often find that a meal does not feel complete without a few slices of tomato. Tomatoes provide a delicious taste and can even better give a little lycopene to prevent prostate cancer.

In the last few weeks tomatoes in the area have begun to reach their glory days. They are plentiful, cheap, beautifully ripe and coming from a nearby farm and not a distant hot house. A simple local tomato can cost you a dollar a pound in places like the 9th Street Market or The Reading Terminal. Most of them bare the simple label "Jersey Tomato" and boast a juicy, flavorful variety that easily trumps anything you can get outside of the summer months. In Jersey, tomatoes are so sacred that they are the official state vegetable. In some circles, I would be ridiculed for consolidating all the tomatoes grown in the state under the simple label "Jersey." I cannot pretend to know the intricacies of each variety, but I stand to reap the culinary benefits from those who do.

On your fork this month for people all over Philadelphia and New York enjoy a Jersey Tomato.

Resources:

20th Annual Great Tomato Tasting, September 1st, 2010. Pittstown, NJ

The History and Lore of the Famous Jersey Tomato