"Santa Sweets" news and stories

Heirloom tomatoes are all the rage these days. And why not? They are beautiful in their imperfections and their taste is almost always out-of-this-world good. So much better than those mealy grocery store tomatoes we've been mindlessly eating all these years. Two different little items came my way yesterday having to do with these darlings of the tomato world, and the synchronicity was just too much to bear. A post was in order.

First, via Yumsugar, I discovered that Santa Sweets, the company behind the Uglyripe, runs an "Ugly Tomato" contest. This year they received so many submissions that they were forced to pick ten winners. Each one of the winners was a doozy, most with many lobes, cracks and crannies. They aren't particularly lovely to look at, but I'm sure they tasted amazing.

Just a few hours later, Matt Billings sent us a link to the set of photos he took (the pic up top is his) of the heirlooms he bought at Eastern Market this last weekend. His pictures have the power to make tomato lovers weak in the knees and offer an interesting contrast to the "ugly" pictures from the Santa Sweet's page.

There you go. Tomato food porn at its best and worse. Now if you'll excuse me, I do believe there's a tomato in my kitchen calling my name.