12:59 p.m. Saturday, August 22, 2009

Take a look at these tomatoes!

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By Rosalind Bentley

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

This is the season of obsession.

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BITA HONARVAR, bhonarvar@ajc.com Cherry tomatoes from Stephanie Hass' Cabbagetown garden.

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BITA HONARVAR, bhonarvar@ajc.com Stephanie Hass tends to her cherry tomatoes. Her intown spread is awash in hues of yellow, purple, green and red.

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BITA HONARVAR, bhonarvar@ajc.com Brandywine, Green Zebra and cherry tomatoes from Stephanie Hass' Cabbagetown garden.

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Tomato obsession, that is. And there’s so much out there, it’s bordering on obscene.

Like U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stewart Potter said of obscenity, we know it when we see it. Don’t know what we mean? A quick surf of the Web should help explain.

Check out the Facebook pages of the home gardeners among your friends. It’s a safe bet you’ll likely find photos of their tart little Sungolds, luscious and sultry Black from Tulas or exotic Zebras baring all their stripes and leaving nothing to the imagination. Just look at them, all huddled together in a wicker basket or spread lavishly across a granite countertop.

“Look at my tomatoes,” the caption might exclaim. Scandalous.

Stephanie Hass, 27, is guilty. Her enthrallment with her latest crop of tomatoes began way back in February, when she started her first seedlings inside her Cabbagetown house. By spring, she’d transplanted the shoots to her garden. By July, the fruit was ready for its first photo op.

“‘They’re almost here,’” Hass announced on her Facebook page.

While most of the accompanying pictures of the Cherokee Blacks were full-on portraits, other images showed the fruit obscured by leaves in a seeming gesture of modesty.

For the past month, Hass’ garden has been awash in ripe yellows, purples, greens and reds.

“The first time you taste it, it’s all you can think about,” said Hass, administrative coordinator for Georgia Organics. “So sweet and tart. You can make a salad with them, sauce, a sandwich, put them on a cracker, sun-dry them...”

And if you think that’s getting carried away, you should have heard cookbook author Lynne Rossetto Kasper, host of National Public Radio’s “The Splendid Table,” describing the experience of biting into a Roma (bland, common, vanilla) as opposed to a Black Krim (It’s just, Oh!)

“It is tomato season,” and as such, people are given to boastfulness, said Jennifer Zyman. Zyman is an Atlanta food writer and author of The Blissful Glutton blog. At the recent Attack of the Killer Tomatoes Festival — a gathering of area chefs, farmers, foodies and the curious — Zyman saw “some fun things going on with tomatoes,” particularly some smoky gazpacho frozen push-up pops. “I wasn’t expecting that,” Zyman said, with just a hint of breathlessness.

But there’s justification for all this fawning and posting and talking about tomatoes so publicly, Zyman claimed. In a way, it’s kind of county fair-ish. Many people who put their produce on display in virtual forums are sharing tips with other home-growers on how to cultivate better, tastier tomatoes. They’re bragging too.

“People get very studious when they start gardening,” Zyman said. “And with the heirloom varieties getting so popular, people get a little obsessed.”

Neil Taylor, owner of TaylOrganics in Ellenwood, has seen the tomato obsession spring up between July and mid-September for the past 15 years in one form or another, and without fail.

Each Saturday, he and his staff pile up endless varieties of glowing, succulent heirloom tomatoes — to the point that the display looks so abundant that it borders on the decadent.

Recently, Taylor had a line two-dozen-people long clamoring for his deep, dark Japanese Black Trifeles.

“Oooo, what do they taste like?” one woman was overheard asking, practically cooing.

A typical reaction, Taylor said.

“That’s going to be a phenomenon you find at this time of year,” he said.

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