The Bacon’s in the Mail

Wondering what to do with all the home-grown tomatoes--the ones that actually taste like tomatoes--that are rapidly ripening on your vine? The answer is easy: Make bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwiches.

But if you’re going to use good tomatoes, why settle for the thin, tepid stuff that passes for bacon these days? It shrinks to nothing in the pan and tastes of artificial maple, sugar and salt.

The bacon from Nueske’s (NESS-keys) is another matter. This four-generation Wisconsin firm uses natural smoke from the embers of sweet applewood to flavor its meat. And because the pork is slow-cooked at a temperature of 150 degrees, more grease and fat stay in the smokehouse.

Thick, meaty and flavorful, this bacon is a cut above the rest. However, at $19.95, plus $5.95 shipping charges for three pounds, you’ll need to bring home plenty of the other kind of bacon to afford it.

Hillcrest Farm Rural Route 2 Wittenberg, Wis. 54499 (800) 392-2266 MasterCard, Visa, American Express, Discover