ode to our tomatoes

my new favorite thing is picking the mass of ruby red paste tomatoes we have growing in the garden, and roasting them in the huge cast iron skillet in the oven until they are a wrinkled juicy mess of warmth and succulence.

paste tomatoes are a new experience for me. we have a lot of heirlooms that are quite lovely. paste tomatoes look like red jewels hanging on the vines in their big clusters. we're really starting to get a huge crop of them now that it's nearly october, and i could easily pick 50-100 a day. with any luck there'll be enough left to make glorious pasta sauces and soups all winter long.