If not for air conditioning, I would slump into a stupor that won't lift until the first cold front of autumn blows through town.

Fresh locally grown food that we can't have any other time of year keeps my spirits up. When corn, beans, squash, tomatoes, cucumbers, melons, blackberries and peaches are all available, it must be July.

You can build cool, easy, light meals around the epitome of deep summer -- the tomato. Red tomato skins shimmer with a golden haze. And it's not all about red; this member of the Nightshade family also comes in orange, green, yellow and striped. A mix of tomatoes makes for eye-popping salads and vivid tomato sampler plates.

In March I leaf through the packets of seeds I've collected and contemplate what I want to taste. Each season I choose an assortment of 8-10 types with at least one new kind, often based on a fascinating name like "Mortgage Lifter," which has monster, multi-lobed fruit, or "Nebraska Wedding," a glowing orange tomato.

I never have a summer without Sungold cherries -- orange and so sweet we call then tomato M&M's. I always make a place for Celebrity -- guaranteed to put on loads of uniform, medium acid fruit good for sauces, soups and salads. And you can't fail with Cherokee Purple -- an heirloom variety with greenish-purple shoulders. Cut into one of these dark beauties to discover dense, creamy flesh.

This year I also have Big Beef, Amish and Tuscany plums, Mrs. Benson -- an heirloom pink -- and two trials for this year, Sun Red cherry, and an Italian, Bolseno.

I start the seeds in the house and set two dozen plants into the garden around the first of May. By mid-July we're eating the first ripe tomato. By the end of August, a bit worn down by the weeks of countertops spilling over with fruit and daily harvesting and processing, we've got a freezer full of whole tomatoes and sauce to keep us enjoying the taste of summer all winter.

If you want to try out some new tomatoes, visit your local farmers market or check out the tomato tasting at the Carrboro Farmer's Market this Saturday. You can taste heirloom and new hybrids and decide which ones you like best.