A local tomato picked at full ripeness in August is one of the best things you can eat. A supermarket tomato in February is barely the same fruit. Understanding what to buy and when is the difference between thinking tomatoes are fine and realizing they are a revelation.
Varieties worth knowing
Farm stands in summer carry a wild range of varieties. Here are the categories worth understanding:
Beefsteak — Big, meaty, slicing tomatoes. The classic BLT tomato. Varieties like Brandywine and Cherokee Purple fall here. Best eaten raw in thick slices with salt, or layered in sandwiches where they can shine without being overwhelmed.
Roma and paste tomatoes — Elongated, oval, with firm flesh and less juice. Bred for sauce-making because they cook down efficiently. San Marzano is the pedigree version (Italian, protected origin); local paste tomatoes often come under generic names like Amish Paste or Roma.
Cherry and grape — Small, bite-sized, usually very sweet. Sun Gold (an orange-yellow cherry) is widely agreed to be one of the best-tasting tomatoes period. Great fresh in salads or roasted until they collapse into a jammy sauce.
Heirloom — An open-ended category covering old varieties grown from saved seed. Usually ugly by supermarket standards (cracks, unusual colors, irregular shapes) and extraordinary by flavor standards. Brandywine, Cherokee Purple, Green Zebra, and Striped German are common names you'll see at farm stands.
Beefsteak hybrids — Modern hybrids bred for better disease resistance and yield while preserving decent flavor. Big Beef and Early Girl are common. Less distinctive than heirlooms, more reliable in quantity.
Grape and currant tomatoes — Tiny, intensely sweet, often used whole. Worth grabbing when you see them — they rarely travel well to supermarkets, so farm stands are often the only place to find them.
When tomatoes are in season
Peak season (July – October): Local tomatoes are at their best. This is when you want to be eating them raw, in salads, and pressure-canning them for winter.
Shoulder (June, November): Early varieties appear in June in warmer states; late varieties hang on into November in southern states. Quality starts strong and trails off.
Off-season (December – May): Supermarket tomatoes are greenhouse-grown or shipped from Mexico and the Caribbean. For any dish where tomatoes are the star, use quality canned tomatoes (San Marzano DOP if you can find them) instead.
Peak season tightens with latitude: Maine and Michigan have a tighter window than Georgia or California. Greenhouse tomatoes from local farms can bridge the shoulders but won't match field-grown fruit.
How to pick tomatoes at the market
Look for: Deep color appropriate to the variety (don't judge heirlooms by red-tomato standards — they come in yellow, green, purple, and striped). A slight give when gently squeezed at the shoulder. A strong, sweet, green smell at the stem end — this is the real ripeness test.
Avoid: Tomatoes that feel hard all the way through (underripe, won't taste of anything), or squishy throughout (overripe, will collapse when sliced). Small cracks near the stem are fine. A mild green hue near the stem is fine.
At a farm stand: Ask about "seconds" — cosmetically imperfect tomatoes that farms sell at a discount. Perfect for sauce, soup, or slow-roasting. Any flaw you can cut around is irrelevant once the tomato is cooked.
How to store tomatoes
Keep tomatoes at room temperature, stem-side down, away from direct sun. They will ripen on the counter over a day or two. Fully ripe tomatoes keep 3 to 5 days before they start to go.
Do not refrigerate unless you absolutely must (and only if fully ripe). Cold damages flavor compounds and makes the flesh mealy. If you have to refrigerate, let the tomato come back to room temperature before using.
See the dedicated storage guide for more detail on extending the window without ruining the fruit.
How to use tomatoes
Raw: The highest use of a great summer tomato. Thick slices with salt and olive oil. Caprese with fresh mozzarella and basil. Bruschetta on grilled bread. Tomato sandwiches with mayo and salt on good bread — a southern classic that rewards the simplest possible approach.
Salads: Heirloom tomato salad with shallots and herbs. Panzanella (Italian bread salad) — a proven way to use tomatoes that are a little past their prime. Watermelon and tomato salad with feta.
Sauce and cooking: Fresh tomato sauce is a 20-minute project in peak season. Slow-roasted cherry tomatoes make a condiment you can fold into pasta, spread on toast, or eat by the spoonful. Gazpacho, soups, and stews all benefit from fresh tomatoes over canned.
Preserving: Peak season is the time to can whole tomatoes, make sauce in batches, or freeze roma tomatoes whole (they peel easily when thawed). A pantry of summer tomatoes carries you through January.
Flavor pairings
- Basil — The canonical pairing. Tomato and basil is a whole cuisine.
- Mozzarella — Fresh, milky cheese cuts the acidity. Caprese is the proof.
- Garlic and olive oil — The base of almost every good tomato preparation.
- Balsamic vinegar — Aged balsamic with ripe tomatoes is transcendent.
- Anchovies and capers — Salt and umami, the Mediterranean signature.
- Corn — Both peak in the same weeks. Summer corn salads with tomato are a regional classic.
- Stone fruit — Peach and tomato salad sounds strange, works brilliantly.
- Eggs — Shakshuka, egg-in-a-nest, poached eggs over garlicky tomatoes on toast.