Dennis pens an open love letter to the Jersey Tomato

I sadly said goodbye over the weekend to my summer love.

My lips first tasted her sweetness this past July after meeting at a roadside stand not far from my home. I enjoyed many pleasant family lunches and romantic dinners with her since that hot summer day. I spent lavishly on her whenever I would see her around New Jersey, dressing her in the finest dressings money could buy.

Together, we made beautiful salads together. I enjoyed grilling with her. I sometimes got her heated up and peeled her supple red skin and made beautiful sauce together. We enjoyed making pizzas together and even introduced her to her close friend at my house, basil. She and basil enjoyed swimming in olive oil and lavished in blankets of fresh mozzarella together.

It was a beautiful summer romance, but it sadly must come to an end. Like that boy or girl you met at summer camp or on a yearly summer vacation at the same place, it was heartbreaking to say goodbye. But just like that innocent summer fling of years gone by, there is hope that next summer, we will be reunited.

In the meantime, I will be tempted by other "out of town" substitutes that will draw me in with their shiny, but paler pink skin. I will indulge them but nothing can take the place of her scent, her taste and her irresistible beauty.

I picked my last Jersey tomato Sunday and the sadness was real. Until that early July day next year when I will run to her and squeeze her and long to put her to my lips, I will have an emptiness that only a Jersey boy could know.

Goodbye my succulent friend, until next summer!

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Dennis & Judi are on the air weekdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Tweet them @DennisandJudi or @NJ1015.