Tomato Envy

At the IABA conference quite a number of people were interested in blogs and blogging and there were some great papers on the subject. I introduced these scholars to the term 'harvest porn' - the droolworthy pictures of harvests. Most giggled, some were academically confronted by the exact terminology, while others couldn't understand the joy of looking at someone else's garden produce. But I love these pictures, and at the moment there are so many amazing Northern Hemisphere harvests (and some pretty awesome local ones too.) What I drooled over the most were tomatoes. Delicious, homegrown, still warm from the sun tomatoes.

So I got harvest envy, or moreover tomato envy. It is a love apple seven deadly sin fest on my computer screen! Luckily I curbed this envy a little while ago when the market sold the last of the heirloom tomatoes. Similar scenarios have happened in years gone past.

This time around I got these two beauties and the pictures do not do justice to their size. The portion of slices pictured below was for one meal, and I managed to get three and a half plates of similar size out of these miraculous 'matoes!!!

 Just add some other chopped veggies and here is one wonderful meal.

The red one was a bit like a mortgage lifter, though a little mealy. The yellow was deliciously sweet but again a little mealy. Given the lateness in the season (it was winter for goodness sake) I am not surprised at their mealy interiors but both were heaven anyway.

The Vic markets and some of the Woolworths and Coles in the area (and hopefully smaller places can get in on this action, grrr to Coles and Woolies for monopolising the good stuff.) often have these medley tomatoes. They're grown in such conditions that they are available nearly all year round. They're pretty good, tasty little mouthfuls though sometimes a little insipid. Still they're much better than the cardboard tomatoes of the past!

But nothing, nothing beats the taste of a good, homegrown tomato, so until Spring hits it is tomato envy for me all the way. Keep up the good harvests.