You might not be aware that the tomatoes you most likely buy at the store today are not the same that you might have eaten just, say, around seventy years ago. In fact, your tomatoes likely taste worse. Because tomatoes were forever changed by an invention that most people have likely never seen, nor even thought about.
I try to grow tomatoes. I spend $50 in supplies for one tomato.
ReplyDeleteI've been trying for four years and spent far too much. This year I finally got a ton of cherry tomatoes and a couple of Romas. The heirloom never produced a thing, just like in the past years.
DeleteI always figured the tomatoes I grow in my yard taste amazing because they spend so much time on the vine. Tons and tons of time to ripen up.
ReplyDeleteNothing better than home-grown heritage termaters.
ReplyDeleteI grew up on home grown tomatoes--my dad was a tomato fancier, serious about it. We had great tomatoes. Today's can't hold a candle to them.
ReplyDeleteNow you have the supplies, don't give up. Learn from it and grow; both tomatoes and yourself. There's a reason we weren't taught gardening in school.
ReplyDeleteScarecrow
Nothing tastes like a fresh picked fruit...of ANY KIND.
ReplyDeleteHome grown strawberries come to mind. When I grew them I considered them to be a little kiss from God. Sweet as candy.
DeleteTomatoes used to go splat if you dropped them or threw them at the bad actor on stage. Even if you grow your own tomatoes, it is very difficult to find tomato plants with these old fashioned tomatoes.
ReplyDeleteBaker Creek Heirloom Seed Company
DeleteGive them a visit. We get seed there from time to time, nice folks.
Neck
At the end of the season, the local produce stand sells "canning" tomatoes. They'll go splat if you don't do something with them rather quickly. As the name implies, they're only good for canning -- and they are far less expensive than standard tomatoes.
DeleteThis!
Deletewhen you selectively breed for traits that aren't related to taste, it tends to remove taste related qualities. I never saw the appeal of seedless watermelon. no taste at all.
Look what selective breeding has done for roses, too. Big, beautiful, perfect blossoms, but no scent to them.
DeleteMajority of people today should be classified as hot-house roses.
DeleteGrown in Potemkin greenhouses.
"Only two things that money can't buy
ReplyDeleteAnd that's true love and homegrown tomatoes"
Guy Clark - "Homegrown Tomatoes"
https://youtu.be/9tj4wIKMqEE?si=pG03_LoNxmjz1Ozm
Commercial matters are grown for shipping, not eating. I always plant at least a dozen every year, Better Boy, Beefsteak, couple yellow and cherry. Men in my family always kept a salt shaker out back because you never know when the urge for a mater hits.
ReplyDeleteDaryl
try using your old coffee grounds mixed into the soil. I had great results with it.
ReplyDeletemy cherry tomatoes where so sweet I used to eat them right off the vine.
brought some into work once and they went FAST. and was asked to bring some more in
after that 2 pounds where gone. put any ones I bought from the supermarket to shame.
made a deal with the local 7-11 for their old grounds and worked them into the soil before planting my seedling and wow, they took off !
I'm in Australia, so we're just about to move our seedlings from the greenhouse into the beds.
ReplyDeleteWe usually cultivate about a dozen plants in our back yard garden and each year we get enough tomatoes to eat off the vine, make salads, give away to friends, make pickles and enough Ketchup and pasta sauce to last a year. Tonight we had had pasta with sauce made in March, and we still have plenty left.
Home grown tomatoes are to store bought tomatoes as orgasms are to scratching your balls while you're thinking. There is no comparison.
#protip Make a big batch of pasta sauce or Ketchup, then put it into ziploc sandwich bags and freeze it. Use it as required.
I grow several vegetables. I grow a mix of hybrids designed for taste, and heritage tomatoes, tasty green and suoy (sp?) long cucumbers, long beans, squash, bell peppers, and radishes that have a real kick to them. Some years we grow other things as well. I built raised beds that I have about $1000 in, but that has been amortized over 10 years and the cost is continuing to go down. I can enough tomatoes, tomato sauce, spaghetti sauce, and pickles that I end up making money on my gardens. Composted chicken manure and some commercial fertilizers (when needed) are added to the garden each spring. I buy some cherry tomatoes in the winter, but I would not go near a store bought slicing tomato anymore. We canned pears from our big pear tree this year and made peach preserves from our own peaches one year. One spring was so wet I was able to put up blackberry preserves as well. It is work, but I am retired and my time is free to me.
ReplyDeleteAbout 20 years ago, we visited my mother on a long road trip to show the boys where the final battles of the revolutionary war were fought. We walked into her house and there were fresh tomatoes on the window sill ripening. I picked one up and ate it like an apple. My wife exclaimed: I thought you don't like tomatoes. I told her to take a bite. Her expression turned to full wonder and she asked me: What is that?
I can't grow a tomato to save my life but I have a neighbor that can.... I have 2 pecan trees that were on the property when I bought it and truthfully I'm not a big fan so we trade... I've traded for homegrown tomato's, watermelons, fresh eggs and home made wine...
ReplyDeleteJD
Compari tomatoes from Costco are the closest thing to homegrown that I've ever tasted, and we won't buy any other brand. Still a distant second to the real thing.
ReplyDelete