Garden Back To Eden

* Please don’t squeeze! *
I know, I know. Granville Island is a tourist destination. But for a spot that is so popular with tourists, it still has plenty to offer locals as well.
Today when wandering through the market I stumbled onto a vendor I hadn’t seen before selling a very wide variety of locally grown organic heirloom tomatoes from a farm in South Surrey.
There was no sign with a name, just a small handwritten sign that had the price and a request that sounds like an old Charmin commercial, «Please don’t squeeze the Charmin (cough) tomatoes.»
They had a beautiful selection of about 7 different varieties that you could pick and choose from.
I don’t know the names of the varietals. But they were absolutely delicious with dinner tonight. My favourites were the purple speckled one (name!!!) and the green speckled one (name!!!).
Don’t know how long they will be there — so if tomatoes are your thing, you might want to brave the tourist traffic (it was pretty light on a weekday at least!) and check them out before they are gone.
So sweet. So flavourful. So squeezable!

Name a tomato or a recipe made with tomatoes and I probably love it. You might catch me eating a tomato like an apple, slicing them on bagels, or just on toast with mayo, on salads, in sauces of all kinds, in soups… if I were a vegetable or fruit (I think of them as both) this is what I’d want to be! From romas, beefstakes, cherry, strawberry, grape, field, vine ripened, I love them all. But most of all, it’s heirlooms I adore!
At the seasonal stand at Granville Island for $ 4.50 a lb, I can select from more than 5 varieties of heirlooms; grab a bunch of basil for $ 2.50−3 and have the perfect salad (with a little olive oil, white balsamic vinegar and some feta).
Oh divine on the vine!