Tomatoes are the most popular crop among American home gardeners.Garden writer Jessica Damiano says there are many good reasons to grow your own tomatoes.Just the smell of homegrown tomatoes, Damiano says, will remind you of summer.A major benefit of growing your own tomatoes is variety.If you visit a garden center, you will find seeds and small starter plants for yellow tomatoes, purple tomatoes, huge tomatoes, and even very small tomatoes.There are kinds you simply cannot find at a local food store.Damiano loves tomatoes.In fact, she created and hosted The Great Long Island Tomato Challenge while working for a local newspaper in the state of New York.The gatherings of people who love tomatoes, or "tomatophiles," continued for 13 years.One tomato that was entered into the challenge weighed more than 2.3 kilos.Damiano also got to meet and speak with the competitive tomato growers who raised the winning fruits.
