When I was a kid, my grandmother would line up her garden tomatoes along the kitchen windowsill to finish ripening in the sun. She served sliced tomatoes, neatly fanned out on a small plate, with nearly every meal in the late summer.

Sure, the start of Iowa’s sweet corn season gets all the attention in the local news. But don’t let cornstalks overshadow another true taste of summer: a fresh-picked Iowa tomato.

Although store-bought tomato varieties are improving, the flavor can’t quite compare to the soft, rich taste of a tomato picked straight from an Iowa garden, still warm from the sun.

Iowa farmers know that their customers crave garden-ripe tomatoes ...