At top is a stack of real Bradley tomatoes, trucked into LR by a Monticello friend yesterday. I”ve been through three or four pounds already. They are tremendous.
The smaller shot, not such high quality photography I’ll grant, are slices remaining from a spectacular brandywine tomato grown by Al Leveritt, the Naked Farmer and publisher of this newspaper, and a devotee of organically grown heirloom tomatoes. We made BLTs for lunch today with the brandywine and they simply don’t get any better. But it occurred to me that it profanes them to mix them with bacon, lettuce, bread and mayo. So I held back some slices to eat on their lonesome.
I noticed that Boulevard Bread had a heaping bin of heirloom tomatoes this morning, too. Last year was a washout for tomatoes. The news this year looks and tastes good. If you’re lucky, some of Farmer Al’s brandywines, plus several other heirloom varieties including a golden he’s particularly proud of, are on offer at Hardin’s Produce in the River Market. Pricey, but worth every penny.