Recipes: Fresh tomatoes from tomato-loving cooks

Ripe tomatoes are peeking from the back of Frances Clark’s lush greenhouse plants.

In Whitman County, people love tomatoes, although they ripen later here than in many places. In Eagle, Idaho, near Boise, Jim and Marilyn Truesdell Linford usually have their first ripe tomatoes about the first of July, but do confess to using water walls to hurry them along. Walls of water collect heat during the day, convecting warmth to the plants at night. Celebrity and Super Fantastic are two of their favorite varieties.

Glenda Clark Dillon, Caldwell, places a cracked whole egg in the planting hole before p...