This time of summer talk turns to tomatoes whenever a few Midwesterners gather. Leaf color, plant height, fruit size, bugs, skin splits suggest gardeners dominating the discussion. The rest of us wait to add our dinner plate observations about juice, pulp, flavor, returning to juiciness. If you like BLTs, caprese salad, a plate of tomato slices, the conversation always features juiciness. A BLT that doesn’t drip some combination of mayo and tomato down the side of the bread is just a sandwich that could be made any time of year.

We’re having a mediocre tomato harvest in this part of the state. There’s tales about plants growing taller than their gardeners, producing a few blossoms, and two or three golf-ball sized fruit that stay green. More people had plants that developed brown leaves on the lower stem and minimum blossoms or fruit. A friend who usually pushes tomatoes and cucumbers on anyone who comes near his house has had about eighteen tomatoes this year from a half dozen plants. 

The juice factor isn’t ranking as well as past years either. Caprese salad at a very good Italian restaurant last week had solid, almost too solid, tomato slices. Firm texture and minimal taste. Farmers market tomatoes had woody white streaks throughout the insides. The experts say these are signs of stressed plants as well as highly humid conditions during the wrong time of the season.

So our tomatoes are stressed. That condition we all understand. So many things out of our control, but we all do our best to do our best. Makes me feel kind of bad for dissing tomato plant output. At this time of summer, optimism for awesome fresh produce dishes stays high. Heading back to the market to bring home new tomatoes with great expectations. Maybe the plants found a happier time later in the growing season to forget their stress.