Regardless of what you call it, for generations millions of American children grew up anxiously awaiting the ripening of the year’s first tomatoes as it signaled a near daily treat until well past the first frost.
Friday, September 18, 2020
A Generation That’s Never Tasted a Real Tomato
It is undeniable that the tomato has become a staple food in the Western World, as American, Italian, Spanish, and Mexican diets are largely based upon this easily preserved fruit. A fruit the Supreme Court ruled to be a vegetable in 1893 in a case that challenged US tariff laws imposing a duty tax on imported vegetables but not fruits.
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Read a story a few years back that said there are six families that control the majority of high volume tomato production with farms spanning from Florida to California on both sides of the border. Wow! But they still taste like crap.
ReplyDeleteThe University of Florida has been working on Tomato Hybrids for local weather and soil conditions.
ReplyDeleteAnyone interested can obtain a samples of three different hybrids and learn more about the project at the UF Klee Research Labs web pages:
https://hos.ifas.ufl.edu/public/kleeweb/newcultivars.html
The Tasti-Lee variety that was cultivated at the UF/IFAS Gulf Coast Research & Education Center is one of the best tomatoes that I've ever tasted. There's a town on the SE shore of Tampa Bay called Ruskin that used to be The Tomato Capital of the World. Unfortunately, after NAFTA, the only thing growing there now is gigantic cookie-cutter housing developments, with the obligatory Section 8 tack-ons, that immediately lower property values.
DeleteI miss stopping at the old roadside veggie stands and getting actual vine-ripe tomatoes that tasted like, well, tomatoes.
I've been growing about 20+ different varieties of heirloom tomatoes for the past 10 years. When I offer some to folks around 30 or younger, they usually say they don't like tomatoes and when I tell them they have never had a real one, they are skeptical. But, once they try them, they can't believe the taste and want more.
ReplyDeleteCurrent favorites are the Green Zebra which is tart and somewhat acidic, the Cherokee Purple which is very dark, large and flavorful and the Sun Sugar, which is a very sweet orange colored cherry type.
Some of the friends that I stayed with when I was over in 2019 grew only Cherokee Purples. I've never tasted anything like them since. On this side of the pond we're getting only the same sort of crap in our supermarkets as you are in yours. I've regretted to this day that I forgot to get some seeds to plant here. Perhaps next year when this Covid crap is over.
DeleteMy favorite heirloom is the Cherokee Purple. Today's tomatos have no flavor at all. Favorite canning tomato the Oxheart.
ReplyDeleteWe have a 93 year old, full blooded Cherokee at the trap range. He doesn't grow Cherokee Purple. The only tomato that he's ever grown is the Oxheart. He brings little seedlings in every year for whoever wants them. It is very tasty for just plain eating and very meaty for canning and sauce................
DeleteI've been growing heirloom tomatoes for almost five decades. I have a few favorites, but I like to try at least one new one every year. This past year I found a new favorite called Lida from the Ukraine. Very tasty and productive. I had so many that I was taking the extras to the trap range every Thursday for my regular shooters. Everyone loved them. That's one that I'll be planting again next year. I also do San Marzano Redorta every year as my paste tomato. I put them in Ziploc bags and freeze them as they ripen. At the end of the season I thaw them, dump off the water and run them through a mill for making spaghetti sauce. Homegrown garlic, Genovese basil, Greek oregano and home ground, lean beef. I usually end up with 8 to 10 gallons. This goes into small containers and gets frozen. Just had some over vermicelli yesterday from close to the end of last years batch. In a few weeks it will be time to do this year's. I already got my seeds in for next year from https://www.tomatofest.com/ or from https://www.rareseeds.com/. Another variety that I grow is called Longkeeper. It's a storage tomato. You plant them much later than regular tomatoes so that they don't ripen during the summer, but just start getting a little blush at the end of the season. They are a bit strange in that they ripen very slowly from the inside out. A lot of them will keep for months if stored in a cool, dry place. We usually have a good many through December. The record was two or three that lasted until February one year. Nothing like a homegrown tomato on a BLT in the middle of winter..............
ReplyDeleteThanks, I found your post informative and I've copied for future reference. Question, have you grown and ate the Green Zebra? I believe it is one of my favorites and very tangy. I think I like a more acidic tomato. With your years of exp, and other suggestions?
DeleteThanks, James. I've never had the Green Zebra. Can't bring myself to eat anything other than the red varieties. Probably something psychological from having it in the back of my mind that they're not ripe. One of our all-time favorite tomatoes are Red Brandywine (Landis Valley strain). Big, big taste. Any Brandywine is great, but that version is the best..........
DeleteI started gardening for tomatoes. There are few culinary experiences better than a fine tomato right off the vine. I grow several varieties and, most years, have enough in excess to can enough to last the winter in soups and sauces. No better breakfast than free range eggs (from my hens) and tomato wedges from last night's harvest.
ReplyDeleteAnd, I believe that the fruit/veggie story is reversed. The way that I read it, the tomato importers were complaining that their product (taxonomicly a fruit) was being consumed as a vegetable. Because it was used as a vegetable, the importers argues that it was unfair to apply the fruit tax to a functional vegetable. They prevailed. If the tax was on vegetables, why would you argue that your fruit is a vegetable.
Sorry about that. I am a nut about things like that. Someone once observed that I had a mind like a steel trap: an acute grasp of the obvious.
Human excreta has been proven to be the best nutrient supply for tomatoes. Back in the 50s my grandfather use to eat tomatoes like apples with just a generous amount of salt on them. No wonder grandma always called him a shit head.
ReplyDeleteWhen I lived elsewhere, in a communist shithole south of where I live now, some buds of mine and I used to hunt around an old sewage settling pond. That pond used to get mucked out occasionally and they'd pile the muck up in rows to drain the water. Once they were drained, all kinds of things could be found growing out of the piles, tomatoes being the most numerous. Those were some of the best tasting tomatoes I ever ate.
DeleteNemo
Watering tomato plants on a hot evening produces a memorable if not intoxicating aroma. Basil is a distant second. Childhood treat was "mater samiches"; bread, mayonnaise and fresh sliced tomatoes. Seasoned to suit with salt & pepper. Toasted bread is optional and save the bacon for breakfast.
ReplyDeleteA nice, red tomato, warm from the July sun. Take a bite, hit it with the salt shaker, take another bite, more salt. Dad always had a salt shaker on the back porch just for that, and watermelon. We were poor and many times we had a dinner of stewed tomatoes, canned last summer, on toast or plain bread, maybe biscuits.
ReplyDeleteA fella at work turned me on to something called a tomato pie . . . . Yum! Good chow!
ReplyDelete"A day without tomatoes is like a day without tomatoes"....pilgrim...
ReplyDeleteI just had a tomato/bacon/onion salad made from tomatoes, onions, and herbs from my garden. First had that in the Army and got a taste for it that never went away.
ReplyDeleteFresh tomato wedges and sliced cuke out of the garden, in a bowl with a little red wine vinegar and toasted sesame oil.
ReplyDeleteBliss.
CC
Just picked what appears to be the last cantaloupe from my garden. Night time temps are just too cold for the plant, it appears.
ReplyDeleteNow, if you have never had a vine-ripened cantaloupe, then you really don't even know what that melon tastes like.
I grow Hale's Best every year for my wife. Too many people getting sick with Listeria or some other illness from commercial cantaloupe. After she tasted her first homegrown she never wants to go back to store bought anyway. I hate to take up all that space to grow them, but you gotta keep the lovely missus happy........
DeleteI used to grow a variety called Russian Red back in the 60's in NZ. As described by others it had "Taste", sort of exploded in your mouth. Should send most of your congress creatures a packet of the seeds to hide under their beds.
ReplyDeleteanyway here is a link to a seed list of tomato varieties, if you ever want to try some different ones
https://www.liseed.org/tomlist.html#Abstract
Bill The Bunyip
One the varieties we grow. That and the old Italian tomatoes.
DeleteAnd then came the ̶t̶a̶s̶t̶e̶l̶e̶s̶s̶ seedless watermelon.
ReplyDeleteIsn't this the truth. I began growing tomatoes 10 years ago. Since getting a taste at a real ripe red tomato, I just can't stand the vapid pink things they sell in the grocery store.
ReplyDeleteAnyone ever tried Tomato Berries? (NOT tomato cherries). You'll have to grow them yourself but they crap on standard tomatoes for flavour.
ReplyDeleteCan't wait for nursery stocks this year.
Brandywine is my favorite.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately modern farming practices has ruined many fruits and vegetables. Vine ripe vegetables in the middle of winter ain't natural, as in so many things growing your own is the best way to go..
JD
Another one that is awesome grown at home is broccoli. I will never eat store-bought broccoli again. It tastes like ass to me. Home grown is sweet and tasty.
ReplyDeleteTry all the coles home grown. Cauliflower, cabbage, brussels sprouts (to die for), not sure Swiss Chard is a cole, but beats any store bought lettuce and I had Swiss chard growing year around in South Texas.
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