Seasonally simple garden Heirloom Tomato Salad
Heirloom tomato salads are the best way to enjoy Summers bounty!
Heirloom Tomato Salad : Hello Summer!
This consistently cool weather had us apprehensive, particularly as heirloom tomato gardeners. With almost 20 heirloom tomatoes plants that we’ve been nurturing over the last few months, all we were hoping for was some hot sun to get these plants to bolt out with tomatoes. Unfortunately there hasn’t been much of the sun! May and June gloom kept our tomatoes from ripening as intended and as impatient gardeners, the weather left us staring at green tomatoes for the last few months.
We could either pickle the green tomatoes like we often do, or just wait patiently and be as tolerant as we could to allow them to ripen. Trust us, it can get excruciatingly painful to stare at green tomatoes for months when you’re craving sweet red ones.
When patches of late afternoon sun would peak out, the tomatoes were soaking up every bit of nurturing warmth. Finally, after, what seems like a decade, some of the heirloom tomatoes started to ripen to their true, sweet colors. Occasionally one or two would ripen up and we’d eat those in one sitting.
snow white heirloom cherry tomatoes
But what we were anxiously waiting for was an actual harvest full of tomatoes, meaning at least 10 tomatoes. Five for each of us. That’s a fair split and substantial meal.
With this first substantial batch of ripe heirloom tomatoes, there was only one way to enjoy them. A simple, seasonally appropriate preparation of sliced garden heirloom tomatoes with a drizzle of olive oil and balsamic vinegar is perfection on a plate. Add a dusting of good sea salt, fresh cracked black pepper and aromatically sweet fresh basil. Now finally, that is perfection on a plate.
left: sweet 100 cherry. right: green zebra
Sometimes heirloom tomatoes get too much thought when it comes to preparation. Canning, stewing or drying a batch of gorgeous heirloom tomatoes is great if you have an abundance of them. But for us, to really appreciate the delicacy and treasure of an heirloom tomato is to eat it as it was meant to be: raw and fresh.
Just the heirloom tomato sliced on a place with simple accompaniments is all it takes to eat seasonally simple and to celebrate the arrival of Summer.
Less is more, especially when it comes to a good heirloom.
“jewel” enchantment heirlooms
Neves Azorean Red & Black Krim & Green Zebra
above: sun gold cherry
Pinot heirloom
enough tomatoes for a full meal!
Heirloom Tomato Salad Recipe
Ingredients
- fresh , sweet heirloom tomatoes
- olive oil
- balsamic vinegar
- sea or kosher salt
- fresh cracked black pepper
- crumbled goat cheese, feta or grated parmesan , optional
- fresh basil
Instructions
- Slice tomatoes and drizzle with olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper or optional cheese.
- Slice or tear fresh basil leaves on top. Enjoy!
Hi!
I’ve got he same anxious attitude towards my green tomatoes!:-)
Hopefully they will ripen in the next weeks and I will finally be rewarded for my patience…
I do agree with you ‘less is more’!
p.s. Stunning photos, love your work!
Wonderful photos! I’m having serious tomato sadness here because I didn’t plant any this year. Other things in life cropped up. Your pics have me revved to hit at least one farmers market this week. I can just taste them now.
PS I’m growing 95 varieties in our R& D field in Ojai this year. Mostly weird stuff that we’ve never seen and need to know about. If a photo extravaganza mid-season sounds fun I can provide fruit. Or come up here and join us in August, as a few of us will be doing that one weekend during harvest. (Check out last year’s photos in the gallery section of our website!)
Todd, Diane, OK, those pics are outrageous. Again, outrageous.
If you’d ever be interested in a gallery showing would love to tie that in with one of my springtime tomato seedling events. Maybe at Cornerstone Sonoma next April? Don’t know if you ever do anything like that but I and several other “Tomatomaniacs” have been ooohing and ahhhing at your shots for a while and we’d love to have you join us.
Contact me at the e-mail above if that’s of interest…and keep up the amazing work.
I, too, have been waiting for the weather to warm so my heirloom tomatoes would take off. After an early 102-degree day, though, we dropped right back down into the 60s for weeks. The promise of sunshine this week has me excited, as I have several green tomatoes hanging on vines just waiting.
Your heirlooms look like they were well worth the wait. Hopefully I’ll be saying the same soon.
Beautiful, beautiful! Wish I had room to grow them. So many wonderful varieties to enjoy. I’ll have to depend on farmers markets…or stopping by your house to beg for some! Will work for tomatoes.
I’ve been craving tomatoes, especially heirlooms, this summer. What a gorgeous post!! I wish I could come visit and help you harvest. Maybe I could send some of our plentiful Arizona sun your way?
xoxox
Oh lovely heirlooms! I have to admit that I am still getting my tomatoes in the garden–today I planted Cherokee Purple, Dr. Wynche’s, and Mama Leone.
Oh so jealous. Beautiful pictures! Look forward to seeing more
I’ve still got maybe a good month yet before any heirloom tomatoes harvested from my garden. Your pic of Neves Azorean Red makes me miss that one. I grew it a couple years ago and it was wonderful!
This year I have: Cuostralee, Cherokee Green, Aunt Ginny’s Purple and Hillbilly. I usually do a black and didn’t get one in this year.
Yum… I am growing Black Krim and Sungold this year too, and I can’t wait for my bounty. I’m so excited to eat my home grown tomatoes after sufferring through the bland and well travelled ones available to me over the past few months. I agree – heirlooms are best appreciated raw and simply dressed. Beautiful photos!
Stunning photos!
I love sungolds and green zebra’s! hmmm. I love green tomatoes too. I am from the south so I might have to make some fried green tomatoes. HMMMM.
Beautiful photos!! This is my second year really gardening and since we just bought a house I’m in planters until we move mid-summer. Next year, I hope to have tomatoes as wonderful as these. So lovely!
Another Georgian here. We started our seeds in Feb with grow lights and well even with our heat, our tomatoes are slow going. We’ve got Romas, Brandywines, blondknopftchens, jellybeans and big boys going. The cherokee purples didn’t make it past the 3 week stage. Had a bit of blossom rot on the big boys, but the romas are looking good. We’ve been harvesting basil, green beans, and cucumbers, but the tomatoes are slow going and I’m just itching for a ripe garden tomato.
What beautiful tomatoes….so worth the wait 🙂 As always the most beautiful photos.