Make August BLT Month!

I recently read that April is BLT Month, to which I would like to reply, "WTF?" April?! Where, oh where, can one find a tomato worth eating in APRIL? OK, maybe Florida, but dammit, even the best "heirloom" tomato shipped in from the tropics doesn't begin to compare with a fresh off the vine homegrown tomato. I think August should be named BLT Month.

Sure, tomatoes start coming in July, but in my opinion the really good ones don't hit until August. Pictured here are two varieties from my garden, Brandywine and Yellow Perfection (I leave it to astute readers to tell which is which). They were both absolutely, perfectly ripe and luscious. The bacon is home cured and expertly smoked by my DH, the greens are also from the garden, the mayonnaise was made fresh this morning, and the bread, well, um... It's embarrassing to me as a baker to have to admit that the bread is purchased. The sandwich would have been even more wonderful had the bread been freshly baked, but this bread is a close second. It's Ecce Panis, and has no preservatives, HCFS, or any other nasty crap in it. The ingredient list reads thusly: Enriched wheat flour, water, yeast, salt.

Even though I didn't make the bread, it was still a great sandwich and hopefully the first of many this month. My tomatoes have been slow to produce this year, although I probably had a few ripe last week when I was out of town. I had an early tomato variety that did have fruit in mid-July, but they tasted like crap. I didn't eat any of those tomatoes and instead waited patiently for the others to begin to ripen. Now that they are coming on strong, I'm leaving at the end of the week for vacation. I've told my neighbors to eat all they want - I don't want any of them going to waste.

Anyone care to join me in signing a petition to move BLT Month from April to August?