Each August, plump red fruits saddle the limbs of garden tomato plants. Daily harvests are a ritual in the afternoon heat, and every evening in the kitchen becomes a game, “What can I do with today’s tomatoes?”

Stuffed tomatoes are a creative answer for these summer fruits. Each meal can offer up a new concoction: the red bowls may be filled with cold tuna salad or hot artichoke dip, a grandmother’s recipe for herb stuffing or simply a mixture of complementary leftovers found in the refrigerator. Now the question is “How do YOU stuff your tomatoes?”

Recipe contest

The Vicksburg Farmers’ Market invites you to share your favorite stuffed tomato recipe for a chance to win cash prizes.

Do you stuff tomatoes like your mother taught you? Do you bake or refrigerate your creations? Share your recipe, and your story, with the market. Then, on Aug. 30 at 10:30 a.m., bring four of your about-to-be-famous stuffed tomatoes to the market information tent to share with the market’s esteemed judges. Some participant will be named Stuffed-Tomato Champion. In addition to the accolades, the market will offer a $50 cash prize and a basket of market tomatoes.

All recipes will be shared via the Vicksburg Farmers’ Market Web site, and the winning recipe will be printed in The Vicksburg Post and on a special market recipe card to be shared with shoppers Sept. 6.

Recipe rules:

The deadline for recipe entries is Aug. 23. All recipes must be in hand, or postmarked, or e-mailed by this date.

There are three ways to submit a recipe:

1) E-mail vicksburgfarmersmarket@gmail.com.

2) Mail your recipe to the Vicksburg Farmers’ Market, P. O. Box 150, Vicksburg, MS 39181, ATTN: Mary Beth.

3) Drop off your recipe at the market information tent on a Saturday morning. (Surely, you’ll shop the market for your practice round tomatoes, won’t you?)

Include on the entry your name, mailing address, e-mail address and phone number. And, of course, don’t forget your story and recipe.

Bring your four stuffed tomatoes to the market for the judges’ tasting at 10 a.m. Aug. 30. Tomatoes will be judged on taste, creativity and appearance, and prizes will be awarded at the close of the market.

Those with recipes who are unable to attend the judges’ tasting are still encouraged to submit written recipes by Aug. 23. The market will award honorable mentions for particularly creative and tasty recipe suggestions, and all recipes will be published online. Only tomatoes submitted for judges’ tasting on Aug. 30 will be eligible for the cash prize.

Questions about the contest? E-mail vicksburgfarmersmarket@gmail.com or call 601-634-9484.

Mary Beth Lasseter, associate director of the Southern Foodways Alliance, contributed to this story.

Details Botanically, a tomato is the ovary, together with its seeds, of a flowering plant: therefore it is a fruit or, more precisely, a berry. But even though it is botanically a berry, a subset of fruit, the tomato is nutritionally categorized as a vegetable. Since “vegetable” is not a botanical term, there is no contradiction in a plant part being a fruit botanically while still being considered a vegetable.Tomatoes are used extensively in Mediterranean and Middle Eastern cuisine, with Italian cuisine being the most notable. The tomato has an acidic property that is used to bring out other flavors, although excessive acidity often needs to be balanced with the proverbial “pinch of sugar.” This same acidity makes tomatoes especially easy to preserve in home canning as tomato sauce or paste. Tomato juice is often canned and sold as a beverage. Unripe green tomatoes can also be used to make salsa, be breaded and fried, or pickled.Legally a veggieThe tomato is not so sweet as those foodstuffs usually called fruits and, from a culinary standpoint, it is typically served as part of a salad or main course of a meal, as are vegetables, rather than at dessert in the case of most fruits. As noted above, the term “vegetable” has no botanical meaning and is purely a culinary term.This argument has had legal implications in the United States. In 1887, U.S. tariff laws that imposed a duty on vegetables but not on fruits caused the tomato’s status to become a matter of legal importance. The U.S. Supreme Court settled the controversy in 1893 by declaring that the tomato is a vegetable, based on the popular definition that classifies vegetables by use, that they are generally served with dinner and not dessert.Eaten around the worldTomatoes are now eaten freely throughout the world, and their consumption is believed to benefit the heart among other things. Lycopene, one of nature’s most powerful antioxidants, is present in tomatoes, and, especially when tomatoes are cooked. It has been found beneficial in preventing prostate cancer. However, other research contradicts this claim. Tomato extract branded as Lycomato is now also being promoted for treatment of high blood pressure.