fresh tomato sandwiches....

[mike_c]

Oh man, the taste of summer-- sliced tomato, basil, and parmigiano, lots of salt and pepper, extra virgin olive oil, and a sprinkling of balsamic vinegar on a garlic rubbed, toasted ciabatta roll. The only problem is that it's best if you let it sit for about ten minutes after assembly to let the juices draw and mingle, but I can NEVER wait.

Guess what I had for lunch today.

[The empressof all]

1. One of my best memories of childhood

My dad use to grow tomatoes next to our cellar door in New Jersey. I'd snag them warm from the summer sun, slice them and pile them on fresh Wonder Bread with plenty of Hellmans. Now I'd probably like your recipe better but maybe with a slice of fresh mozzerella added. (And lots of olive oil)

[OldLeftieLawyer]

2. The real deal

It's the only real tomato sandwich (ciabatta, mike_c - you filthy commie!) in the world - Hellmans or Miracle Whip (my fav) and Wonder Bread.

No lettuce, even. Just tomatoes and mayo and bread.

I'm hungry.

[mike_c]

4. after the revolution I'll have to denouce you....

Some time in a reeducation camp will do you good. Wonder Bread indeed.

[OldLeftieLawyer]

5. Oh, yeah,

well, I think I saw a commercial that advertised Wonder Bread and I think it now has FIBER in it. Maybe wood chips, maybe just cellulose. But it's a step in the right direction, comrade.

So, there.

Why do you hate America?

[wryter2000]

11. I should have read you guys before I posted

Definitely, a soft white bread and mayo. We call it Best Foods out here.

Now, I'll be using my own white bread, but the concept is the same.

[Shakespeare]

3. WHERE DID YOU GET FRESH TOMATOES IN ARCATA?!?!?!

Haven't seen anything resembling a fresh tomato yet down here in Santa Rosa. You just made me hungry!

I'm months away from picking any of my heirlooms, but should have my tide-me-by early girls pickable beginning in about a month.

[mike_c]

6. probably from Argentina, LOL....

They're undoubtedly hot-house grown-- got 'em at the local co-op. They're decent, but not home-grown. Local tomatoes are a mythical beast here-- every north coast gardener devotes HUGE amounts of time and resources to growing tomatoes and manages one or two every three or four years, probably at an average cost exceeding $100 per tomato. They simply don't ripen here. I speak from sad experience, and I live in Blue Lake where gardeners SWEAR tomatoes will ripen if everything goes right. Just not this year (every year). Any we buy locally were grown elsewhere and trucked in, guaranteed. They'll start coming from Willow Creek and thereabouts in a month or so.

[Shakespeare]

7. Well, just come on down to Santa Rosa around the beginning of September...

....and you can load up on more heirlooms than you ever knew existed. Man, can we do tomatoes here.

But not for months still. :cry: There's nothing so beautiful as a plate full of sliced brandywines, dressed up ever so slightly with torn basil leaves, a light sprinkling of sea salt and a drizzle of olive oil. Nirvana.

[Gormy Cuss]

9. Shakes, there are hothouse heirlooms available from interior CA

My East Bay farmer's market has a stand from April 'til June. The vendor is from Winters, CA. Just had Italian bread salad for dinner with brandywines and basil!

[wryter2000]

12. Try early girls

Seriously. I can't get anything else to ripen in Oakland, but early girls do just fine. You can't beat the flavor, either.

[mike_c]

14. I've fried 'em green in late September after giving up on ripening any....

Some years they ripen-- five years ago I got a bumper crop against a south facing wall-- but most years not. It's not a growing season issue, it's the infrequent hot day-cool night difference that tomatoes need. We get the cool nights, LOL. I'm surprised you can finish them in Oakland, but maybe 300 miles south makes all the difference.

on edit-- the only dependable varieties I've grown here are Sweet 100's and similar grape tomatoes. The yield is probably lower than other places, but they produce so much that it hardly matters, and they're ALWAYS eaten right off the vine, in the garden.

[wryter2000]

16. Wow

I had no idea you guys had so many problems with tomatoes. I buy my peppers from Territorial Seeds in the northwest specifically because they specialize in things that can grow in cool climates.

I hope you can buy good tomatoes if you can't grow them. There isn't a tomato in a store around here worth looking at, let alone buying. I stick to my own and farmers market tomatoes.

[politicat]

18. Siberians, baby. The only way to go for short seasons.

The Siberians have this down to a science. They spent 80 years developing them the hard way - save the seeds from what did best. Just after the wall fell, the seed trust went over and made some arrangements and got seeds.

http://www.seedstrust.com/tom/tomato.html

Zarayanka's Sunrise is one of the biggies, weighs about a half pound and is ready in 68 days. (Start 'em in cold frames.) Grushovkas are pink and taste like heaven.

If I can get tomatoes to grow in Colorado, with a late set date of May 12.... Non-hybrid, open pollinated and tasty. Beautiful plants, too.

[mike_c]

28. nope, won't work here....

It's not the length of the season-- in practice, we have relatively "long" growing seasons, I mean there are only a couple of months of frost all year, generally. But even at the height of the growing season it's unlikely to be hotter than about 70-75 F during the day here, and in the fifties at night. In July and August! MANY days don't climb out of the sixties.

Tomatoes don't ripen without a steep day/night temperature gradient, and there aren't any good cultivars that I know of that fix this. I could start tomatoes in April, no problem (well, fungus might be a problem, but that's another issue) and grow them well into November. They'll be burdened with lots of green fruit that will ultimately abort on the vine because it can't ripen most years in our cool maritime climate. As I said, I know this from sad experience.

I never knew this about tomatoes before I moved here. Short season varieties are not designed to deal with the day/night temp gradient problem-- it gets hot during the middle of the day even during the short Siberian summer! But it doesn't here in coastal NorCal. Twenty miles inland from here-- same season length-- the days will be 90F and tomatoes ripen like crazy. It's the proximity to the cold Pacific Ocean that prevents us from growing tomatoes, not our latitude.

[politicat]

29. I'd pin it on your daytime temps.

Tomatoes can handle minimal temp variations (or huge ones, as long as you're not hitting freezing...) no problem... but the soil has to get above 65 degrees to fruit, and stay above that in order to ripen.

Walls o water or black sheeting mulch would help raise those soil temps - if you can keep the soil warm, they'll ripen. Or you can snip the vines when they get big and "ripen on the vine" indoors. (Much like on the vine tomatoes at the store. That's how they do it.)

Pot varieties - cherries and grapes - might work, too, because you can get the soil temp higher. But yeah, beefsteaks and hardy boys are right out.

[Duer 157099]

15. Got some fairly nice tomatoes tonight at the street fair

in downtown Santa Rosa. Had to eat two of them right away (they were small) because it has been so long since I've had tomatoey tasting tomatoes.

Now I'm convinced I have to start a garden, if only for tomatoes and herbs, minimum.

[NMDemDist2]

8. tomato, cucumber, pepper and mayo on soft sour dough

a gift from the Gods

[wryter2000]

10. My way

White bread, mayo, and slices of tomato. I live on them all summer.

The plants are blooming. I'll probably have tomatoes in July.

[Reciprocity]

13. Grilled tomato cheese sandwich

This is an open faced sandwich. I make four at a time, but only during tomato season. Store bought just doesn't do it justice.

In order of appearance.

Bread (your choice)
Mayonnaise (real or not)
Cheese (your choice)
Homegrown tomatoes
Salt and pepper

After assembly put on baking sheet in toaster oven or broiler. Watch carefully. You want the cheese to have some black bubbles but not a lot.

[Lugnut]

17. Oh boy

I love those things. I grill the cheese and tomato all together like a regular old grilled cheese sandwich. Then I peel up the tops of the bread and slather on the mayo. Oh boy. I'm drooling.

[Reciprocity]

20. Try it my way and see if you can tell the difference.

The broiler dose something to the tomatoes that brings out the flavor. Also I know this sounds strange but you need to get it hot enough to make some of the bubbles on the cheese black. The cheese under the tomatoes are melted to perfection while the cheese around the tomatoes form a crust.
Yummy, yummy, yummy!

[OldLeftieLawyer]

21. You know what?

You're both Communists.

I bought white bread today. Sunbeam, the East Coast (original) version of Wonder Bread. My grandfather sold this stuff in his store sixty, seventy years ago.

And I got tomatoes.

And I got Miracle Whip.

Some of us LOVE AMERICA, and know what "tomato sandwich" means in ENGLISH.

Cheese.

Harumph.

Hot cheese, no less.

Commies.

[japple]

22. ...and you're supposed to stand over the sink and eat them

but they probably have to eat those with a knife and fork.

[OldLeftieLawyer]

23. YES!!!

They use PLATES, you just know it.

Licking the Miracle Whip with the seeds in it from the outside edge of your palm while you already have four fingers in your mouth.

Now, THAT's American, dammit.

[Reciprocity]

25. First off I admit this is a sloppy eat.

So eating it over the sink is not a bad idea. The only problem (if you can call it that) is the skin on the tomatoes causes it to slide off the cheese. So my chin gets most of the juice from the broiled tomatoes. Not that I let that go to waste.

[Lugnut]

27. Yeah they are

I'm thinking that your way might not be as sloppy as my way. Then again that's half the fun. ;)

[Lugnut]

26. *snort

Guilty as charged. :rofl:

[wryter2000]

24. How could you do this to me?

I won't have tomatoes until July! Woe is me! :evilgrin:

[Binka]

19. Oh Yeah Baby I Live On Tomato's But Hey I Live In Sicily!

Food of the Gods. My tomato plants are huge already, we have had a massive heat wave this week. Siroccos off Tunisia.