10 Things We Learned During Tomato Week

We're now totally equipped to handle the rest of the hot weather bounty. No mozzarella is safe, hide your Early Girls. Tomato Week was a huge success. After celebrating one of our favorite treats of the year for seven straight days, we thought we'd share a few of our favorite nuggets of knowledge from this very enlightening, lycopene-filled week of the ripe, juicy summer tomatoes we'd been looking forward to all year (and will be enjoying for at least a couple more months).

1. There's a time for cherry tomatoes and for grape tomatoes
2. The original Campbell's tomato soup cans were going to be orange and blue.
3. One of the times for cherry tomatoes is on homemade crostini.
4. People really, really like Instagramming perfect summer tomatoes. Obvi.
5. There are probably more than 5 things we never knew about San Marzano tomatoes.
6. The best tomato soup we've ever had...isn't even cooked a little bit.
7. Early Girls had a reputation in high school (and maybe they still do, let's find out).
8. The ultimate summer tomato condiment has nothing to do with ketchup.
9. And speaking of ketchup, there's a new sheriff in town. It doesn't come in a squeeze bottle.
10. You'll want to make a simple tomato recipe more if it's in attractive watercolor-illustrated form.

More ways to enjoy your summer on Food Republic:

• 8 More Reasons To Eat Outside This Summer
• 8 New-School Growlers To Carry You Through Summer
• You Know It's Almost Summer When The Picnic-Enabling Bike Arrives From Holland