25 Ways To Celebrate Tomato-Girl Summer
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“The heat brings the tomatoes, the heat brings the tomatoes, the heat brings the tomatoes…”
These are the words I mutter under my breath, an incantation of sorts, when we get to the bit of summer where humidity rises to 89% percent and the physical temperatures sit well over ninety. To me, a native of this area, the broiling summers are what you are forced to exchange for the rows of warm, flame-colored tomatoes on the farmers’ market table, and husky watermelons cracked in two to expose deep pink centers. You suffer the days so humid that a watered garden never dries, and blithely eat an excellent BLT for dinner in nothing but a bra and biker shorts because it’s too hot to wear even that much clothing. In short, these dogs days are required to turn pale, insipid vegetables into glowy, it-girls. At least that’s what I tell myself.
This all seems very true at least. Friends who have moved to more temperate climates find themselves craving our plethora of beaches, our tomatoes, our okra, the way you can’t help but get tan under the constant sun, and even our daily thunderstorms. They forgot how it feels to breathe through a down comforter thrown over your face, or the way it’s useless to wear makeup outdoors because it is washed away by beads of sweat the moment you step outside. Their summers might be more pleasant, but their tomatoes are missing that zip that we all know is created by uber-intense sunlight, distilled over time. So yeah: the heat brings the tomatoes. But what do you do with so many tomatoes? How do you celebrate Tomato Girl Summer? This post is nothing but ideas, from the obvious to the bizarre. Hope you enjoy it!
Purchase some local tomatoes, then eat them all in the car before they even reach your house.
Toss cherry tomatoes into the open mouth of a friend or partner. Each time you successfully get one in, take one step backward to up the ante.
Make this sheet-pan tomato & gnocchi dinner from Bon Appetit (a personal fave)
Draw a picture of your beautiful tomatoes with colored pencils, and frame it for your kitchen.
Have a contest to guess the weight of heirloom tomatoes at a market - the guesser farthest from reality gets to pay for everyone else’s tomatoes.
Fix the most iconic BLT ever (whatever that means for you) and eat it while watching the 90s version of The Parent Trap
Blast “Hang On Little Tomato” by Pink Martini while fixing yourself a cold drink - you deserve it!
Paint your nails tomato red. For this purpose I enjoy “Lava” by Olive & June
Make the most of the heat and create your own sundried tomatoes with the actual sun - bonus of this method: you don’t even have to turn on your oven!
Take a picture of your tomatoes because yes, they’re gorgeous and no, it isn’t silly to stare at them in the morning sun and feel a little emotional at their gemstone colors
Make a big ol’ salad with peaches, tomatoes, grilled corn, cucumbers, carrots, and a little bit of chicken if you have it. Pairs especially nicely with blue cheese dressing IN MY OPINION.
Invite your friends over for a pasta-making party, and make a pasta sauce out of fresh tomatoes. This is a lot of work, you will regret this, but also it feels like a thing that maybe you should do once or twice in your life?
Cook down a bunch of Sungolds with shallots and garlic, blitz it in a food processer till creamy, adjust the seasoning, and toss it with a can of creamy cannellini beans. Top with chili crisp and a poached egg. Pierce Abernathy taught me this on Instagram and contrary to a lot of social media recipes, he was right. It’s stellar.
Juggle tomatoes in public like Maria VonTrapp in The Sound Of Music
Juice a tomato and find out you still think tomato juice sucks
Hide a tomato in annoying places all around your house till the person (or people) you live with begin to think there’s an infestation. (Just don’t leave it in play too long or it could get gross)
Bring a paper carton of cherry tomatoes to the couch and eat them like popcorn during a movie. For that matter…
…Smuggle cherry tomatoes into a movie theatre.
If you’re growing tomatoes and you have too many (as if) see if you have a community fridge locally, and drop off some of your bounty for someone in need. (this works well for any vegetable! If you’re local to Hampton Roads, I know that there is a community fridge on Mea Culpa’s front porch in Norfolk!)
Use “the tomatoes are really good right now” as an excuse for why you don’t feel like cooking any other veggies for dinner.
Listen to “Tomato” by Dave Marx while you water your garden, or your neighbor’s garden, or if you’re feeling a little bummed out and need a mood-lift in general.
Make Ottolenghi’s charred tomatoes with cold yogurt
Wear a tomato-red item of clothing for an entire day and count how many compliments you get - everybody likes this color!
Happy tomato season to those who celebrate! Waiting to get the inaugural sores on my tongue from eating way too many acidic little cherry toms in way too short a time but hey: time, tides, and tomatoes wait for no man. Sorry to those of you who hate tomatoes - I think maybe you’ve never tasted a real one? Happy Monday!
My favorite fruit. I eat tomatoes most e-v- e-r -y day.