I try to avoid eating while using the computer, lest I crumb up my keyboard. But while perusing the day’s news Monday, I couldn’t wait to eat my favorite sandwich: baby greens, avocado and juicy, ripe tomato.

Just as I sank my teeth in, I read the headline, “Tomatoes pulled off shelves amid salmonella scare.”

I froze. I then resumed chewing, happily.

I knew my tomatoes weren’t toxic. They were grown in Bernard Feyen’s greenhouse in Blair, Wis. I bought them at Saturday’s farmers market. I had asked Bernard about his sultry beauties. He told me they were of the match variety, which is well suited to the lower light environment of a greenhouse. And they taste delectable.

I’ve always enjoyed looking into the face of the farmer that toils so that I may enjoy the most delicious, pure food on Earth. The recent salmonella outbreak reinforced for me yet another dimension of the symbiotic relationship between local growers and consumers. We really do watch out for one another.

Thank you, Bernard, for the gift of eating fearlessly.

Food for thought: "A world without tomatoes is like a string quartet without violins." - Laurie Colwin, Home Cooking

Learn more:

Winona’s Farmers Market: http://www.farmwinona.org/

FDA’s Web page about the tomato salmonella outbreak: http://www.fda.gov/oc/opacom/hottopics/tomatoes.html