Tomato love!

Monday, August 18, 2008 -- 7:15 p.m.

Between my CSA and my parents' garden, I have more fresh veggies than I know what to do with. But I'm not complaining!

I'm particularly excited about several weeks of beautiful, delicious garden-fresh tomatoes.

If you've never had an in-season, locally grown, freshly picked tomato, please head to your closest farmers market or neighbor's garden immediately (though, if you're not friends with said neighbor, I cannot be held responsible).

Now eat the tomato raw.

Bet you never knew that the kitchen staple could taste so good.

There's such an amazing difference between freshly picked tomatoes and the imitation that you find at the grocery store that it's hard to believe they're technically the same thing. In-season tomatoes have this thing called taste, as opposed to the bland flavor of tomatoes picked early and often chemically treated.

Lucky for those of us that don't have our own tomato plants: The fruit is readily found at local farmers markets--and your neighbor might be happy to share them after a few weeks of non-stop tomato