My Last Tomato

When all the other red tomatoes had given up for the season one Brandywine Pink grew a fruit to full size. I fussed over it for weeks, picking it when frosts threatened, and bringing it into the kitchen to finish ripening.

Today I decided it was ready. I baked it in a flat dish in the wood-fired oven with a jacket potato, a piece of buttercup squash, two shiitake mushrooms, chunks of haloumi cheese, and roughly chopped red onion and sweet red pepper. All sprayed with extra virgin oil. The flavour of the tomato was sensational- very rich and a little sweet rather than tart. It enhanced all the other flavours. As a bonus it had seeds to save for the future. The fruit that ripened earlier in the season was largely seed free.