Actually, it’s more about being a garden geek.

We have a rather large garden; probably around 2,400 square feet. We also have fruit trees, berries, and grape vines. Everything is totally organic so we get a little geeky when it comes to methods of growing the best produce and in learning to understand and manage our local pests and plant diseases. The payoff is some really great tasting and healthy food.

I like to joke that the purpose of our garden is to grow salsa. But just one kind of tomato and one kind of chile (pepper) won’t do for a garden geek. This year we have nine varieties of chiles (planted in order from hot to mild, of course) and ten varieties of tomatoes. We have lots of other veggies and herbs too.

We sort of follow a champion-challenger method in choosing what to plant. The champions are the favorite varieties we plant each year. The challengers are the new varieties vying for position in next year’s champion list.

So obviously we would be eager to try a new variety of tomato.

Well, I happened across a blog post by Neal Campel of GeekBrief.tv where he told a story about very tasty heirloom tomatoes at a local farm market that cost $8.

Neal was kind enough to share some seeds he saved, which grew wonderfully. We picked the first fruit today. It was huge with amazing flavor, which brings me to lunch.

One tomato slice was enough to cover our extra large slices of homemade bread. I had mine with homemade hummus, roasted cubanelle sweet chile, onion, basil, lettuce, salt, pepper, and a little mayonnaise. Since I already mentioned GeekBrief.tv and Cali keeps talking about bacon on the show, I must add that my wife had the same but added plenty of bacon. It was a wonderful summer sandwich and one of the best tasting tomatoes we’ve ever grown.

I think we have a new tomato champion on the list that we will always refer to as “Neal’s Eight Dollar Tomato”.

I’m sure they wanted to communicate that they only carry fresh products, but the real message is that they have old rotten food available. If you get some, well sorry, we don’t guarantee freshness. But your reward is that you can have it at no charge instead of us tossing it in the dumpster! Bon Appétit.