Homegrown tomatoes: Use ‘em or lose ‘em

California weather can lull me into a false sense of endless summer, but the tomato vines in our test garden are telling me that fall is just around the corner. When the cold weather hits, they’ll get bland and then turn to mush. Time to get eating! Today’s layered tomato bruschetta salad, with nasturtiums, of all things, takes just a few minutes to put together and looks and tastes spectacular.

  The tomato vines are getting brown and sending their last energy into the fruit

My salad haul from the test garden—earthy-tasting, red-green ‘Black from Krim’ or ‘Black from Tula’; sweet ‘Sun Golds’; red ‘Sweet 100’s’ (plus a few unripe ones); a sweet-tart yellow ‘Nebraska Wedding’; nasturtium leaves and flowers; and thyme for the dressing

Layered tomato-nasturtium bruschetta salad

Brush thin slices of baguette with olive oil and broil until golden. On a platter, layer nasturtium leaves, tomato slices, and some of the croutons, then drizzle the works with homemade Champagne-fresh thyme vinaigrette. Top with some torn nasturtium blossoms. Repeat the layers 2 more times.