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I pity people who live their whole lives thinking of tomatoes as the pale disappointments so prevalent in the supermarket. Those blasphemous imposter fruits are generally picked unripe, treated with ethylene gas, and shipped from points unknown to land on your plate with all the taste and texture of a dog-chewed tennis ball. I’m sure we’ve all bought a few of those in the winter months, but with the happy days of June upon us, there’s one thing that’s never far from you in Arkansas: high-quality, ready-to-eat tomatoes — the kind that you don’t even need to apologize for when the juice drips off your chin. And unlike those bland clones in the mainstream grocery stores, our local growers have tomatoes as diverse in taste and appearance as apples, ranging in size from plump cherries to big boys as large as a grown man’s fist and possessed of colors ranging from purple and green to golden orange.

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I stopped in recently at Argenta Market to take a look at their recent tomato arrivals from Deepwoods Farm, an organic tomato farm in Bradley County owned and operated by the Terry Donnelly family. Folks down in Bradley County are justifiably proud of their tomatoes, and the vine-ripened specimens from Deepwoods are some of the finest I’ve seen anywhere. I love shopping at Argenta Market because the staff is very friendly and knowledgeable, and I was lucky enough to encounter Stephanie Hamling, who runs the blog Proactive Bridesmaid in addition to helping folks like me out with our produce needs. She recommended the Cherokee Purples, and since that happens to be my favorite tomato as well, I knew it was going to be a good trip. If the world of heirloom tomatoes is new to you, though, I’ll give a few different kinds to look for after the jump.

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