The drippy, seedy guts that explode out of a tomato used to seriously disgust me when I was a kid. I found them highly suspicious, I just didn’t trust them. Cherry tomatoes in the salads at fancy restaurants were the worst.  So aggressive! There was just nothing subtle about their punch. I was conflicted though. I wanted to enjoy those shiny red globes with taut skin, like a cute red ball for a tiny squirrel! Awww. I wanted to like them, I really did, but there is no easing into the tomato. The goo just hits and spreads all over your mouth no matter how small the bite. It’s a brash fruit, saying “I’m here, love me!” regardless of how slow you want to take things. 

At some point in my early 20s, I decided to re-examine my food dislikes and will myself to get over them. This didn’t work with everything (sorry, raw oysters), but thankfully, I was truly successful with the tomato. And l like just about every other eater in this town, by the time July rolls around I have got serious tomatobrain. 

I crave tomatoes in every form at every snacking opportunity, but if I had to choose, I would say my favorite preparation would be sliced with a few grains of Kosher Salt for breakfast, elevenses, lunch and dinner. And a midnight snack. I love visiting the Carrboro Farmers’ Market, where I can count on buying dozens of tomato varietals in shades of pink, red, orange and yellow that make the most brilliant sunset seem dull. Of course I can’t wait for the Market’s Annual Tomato Day on Saturday, July 16th, but we’ve also got ACME Food & Beverage celebrating my favorite fruit with their annual tomatofest, and the Outrageous BLT at sandwhich on Franklin Street could not taste any better (especially on Saturdays, when their wines by the bottle are 1/2 price all day!). 

With all this tomato enthusiasm at my favorite snacking spots in town, I thought the highly edumacated readers of Chapelboro might be interested in reading Tomatoland: How Modern Industrial Agriculture Destroyed Our Most Alluring Fruit by Barry Estabrook, the James Beard Award winning author of the blog Politics of the Plate. The NYTimes loved it. Serious Eats loved it. Just try it. You’ll like it. 

Related Stories
‹
Talk Derby To Me
My favorite spring sporting event has to be the Kentucky Derby.  What stands out most during this historic horse race is difficult to decide…the sleek and athletic thoroughbreds, the diminutive yet wiry jockeys in their colorful silks, the thrill of the race itself or the chance for a long-shot filly to come from behind and […]
Parenting Page: It Takes a Village - Of Perspectives
This is a parenting page, about parenting Page. I am a child psychologist and a mother. So I specialize in children, yet I am human, thus I am full of knowledge and yet as full of emotions as any other parent. So I decided to write this Parenting Page since it might be informative and […]
Cabaret at PlayMakers
The crowd laughs, but […]
Political Power Grabs in 1875 and 2013
Republican Party. We need more moderate voices.” One of my longtime friends was tempting me, noting that his political party was in charge now. If I wanted to participate in the new regime in North Carolina, I should change my registration. “And,” he said, “we could use some […]
TABLE Celebrates its 5th Birthday
TABLE celebrated its 5th birthday with children of the South Estes Family Resource Center with a delicious and healthy carrot cake — made with carrots, whole grain flower, white flour and cream cheese icing. TABLE is a nonprofit providing hunger relief to at-risk kids in the Chapel Hill Carrboro area. They will be celebrating their […]
Sleep On It
Some mornings I wake up, check Twitter, and see the following: “The struggle is live today” or “I’m captain of the struggle bus this morning.” Did you ever think about what is the cause of the struggle? I’ll tell you: insufficient sleep. College students are probably the worst offenders when it comes to not getting […]
A Dangerous Eight Seed
Anyone who was channel surfing last Sunday had to stop and marvel at the Carolina-Miami game and how great that first half was. Even if they didn’t know the teams. That’s how good, and at such a high level, the ACC championship game was played. Both teams scored better than a point per possession, shooting […]
Light Sensitive at Nasher
Immediately upon entering the exhibit, one is greeted by images at once recognizable and disorienting. The photographs in “Light Sensitive” are not merely beautifully captured or distilled moments in time. Rather, they are hyper-consciously manufactured artistic works. In this exhibit the idea of photography as an unbiased portal into reality interacts powerfully with the more […]
The Luck of the Draw
Roy Williams wasn’t thrilled with the ACC's NCAA Tournament draw on Sunday night.
ACCT 2013: This Matters.
Who would say this tournament doesn’t matter? Try finding someone in the Greensboro Coliseum on Saturday afternoon who would tell you this is all just a big “cocktail party.” Not only was Saturday’s content potentially Maryland’s last ACC game ever, but every member of this particular UNC team was fighting to win their first tournament—of […]
›