August is (Not) National Tomato Month

I recently convinced myself that August is National Tomato Month. Possibly because I have spent the last several weeks gorging on the beautiful New England tomatoes making their way to the Boston farmers’ markets and local farm stands.

Imagine my dismay when I discovered that August celebrates many foodstuffs, including sandwiches, catfish, and peaches, but according to the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, National Fresh Tomato Day falls on April 6th.

Now, if you dragged yourself through many, many miserably damp days in March and April of 2014, you know for a fact that there was not a local, sun-ripened, fresh tomato to be found in Boston on April 6th. And I’m not the only person who thinks August is the time to celebrate the glorious tomato. Consider the world-famous, tomato-centric celebration known as La Tomatina in Buñol, a small Spanish town in Valencia that attracts over 30,000 people every August.

Courtesy Aaron Corey CC BY-NC-ND 2.0. https://www.flickr.com/photos/aaroncorey/38954571/

This is the perfect time to enjoy beautiful ripe tomatoes of all varieties. They are also a superfood, rich in Vitamin C and fiber, as well as beta-carotene and lycopene. Read more about the health benefits of eating tomatoes in the Tufts Health & Nutrition Letter.

If you’re looking for new ways to enjoy tomatoes, here are a few of my favorite recipes:

• Rice-Stuffed Tomatoes from Smitten Kitchen
• Roasted Tomato Soup from 101 Cookbooks
• Heirloom Tomato Tart from Joy the Baker

And of course, you can always just eat a perfectly ripe tomato all on its own, preferably over the kitchen sink.