If you love tomatoes, there is nothing quite like home grown.  Even the heirloom tomatoes found in the farmer’s markets are too often flavorless.

home grown organic tomatoes in dish on kitchen table

Home grown are truly vine ripened, and knowledgeable gardeners know a bit of stress by cutting back watering as harvest approaches enhances the robust flavor.  I am reminded of this today looking at photos of the finest tomato sandwich ever eaten. Full disclosure it is a bacon, lettuce, tomato sandwich, but all I remember is the tomato.

Rustic home grown tomato sandwich (BLT) with bacon and baby lettuce on picnic table

Years ago I shot a series of simple tomato recipes created by Michele Anna Jordon for Kitchen Garden Magazine.  Gazpacho, tomato bread salad, and fresh pasta sauce were all part of the shoot but a sandwich recipe ?

So very simple, and maybe obvious, but nothing more than sliced rustic bread brushed with good olive oil, lightly toasted with fresh tomatoes, a wee bit of salt and pepper, and a couple slices of bacon and some baby lettuces from the garden.

Cook slicing fresh red ripe tomatoes

Ripened home grown tomato will be red to the core

The juice of the tomato permeates the rustic bread and oh my…..

Michele Anna Jordon is a wonderful cook and prolific author.  Check out her books.

I put a series of photos from that shoot onto a gallery of royalty free images including this equally memorable bread salad.

Bread salad recipe made with home grown tomatos and herbs, Michele Anna Jordon

Bread salad recipe made with home grown tomatos and herbs, Michele Anna Jordon