September tomatoes are the sweetest

We relish tomatoes from early July until to the first frost. With September's cooler days, tomato products abates somewhat and the red tide goes back to being a steady trickle.

We don't grow our tomatoes preferring instead to grow herbs and flowers and so every Wednesday morning and every Saturday morning finds us at our Farmer's market. Tomatoes are always on my list.

Big tomatoes (and we are always grateful when we can get heirloom varieties) which we use for bacon and tomato sandwiches, tomatoes provencal which goes so well with a grilled steak, and sliced thinly for a tomato tart.

Roma tomatoes are good for a quick sauce for pasta and my favorite way is to roast them for roasted tomato soup.

Cherry and pear tomatoes are perhaps my favorite. They're good roasted, several varieties, halved make a great salad when you add olive oil, red wine vinegar and garden basil. I love to buy several colors and make a big bowl of tomato salad. The colors make it an especially pretty dish.

The last week when I went to the Farmer's Market, I found the tomatoes were in short supply. I managed to get three big tomatoes and got the last of some yellow pear, mini romas and orange cherries. Sliced and topping a salad of baby spinach, they made a pretty salad.