Tomatoes

I was in the grocery store this weekend and noticed a display of tomatoes. I went to investigate the section to determine the origin of the organic red pieces of fruit. One type was from a hothouse company in Canada and the other from southern Mexico. If there is anything I am a snob about, it is eating only local tomatoes.

The tomatoes in the store looked good but even if they had tasted good when they arrived to the store the people at the produce department put the tomatoes into the refrigerator section (next to the greens at 35 degrees) – which is way too cold for tomatoes. The coldest a tomato should get is 45 degrees f. Colder than that and the tomato becomes mealy and looses its flavor. Tomatoes should be stored on the counter not in the refrigerator.

My thought on the matter is that if you eat with the seasons you are more able to really enjoy each fruit more. Looking forward to eating the first tomato of the year is almost as much fun as actually doing it. Why ruin that but buying some tomato that doesn’t even taste good and has been shipped in from far away?

My first planting of tomatoes is about 2 feet tall now. This field has had the stakes put up and the first two levels of string have be used to tie the tomato up. They are in the middle of their heavy flowering and some of them have already set fruit that is about the size of a golf ball. At this rate we will be into our tomatoes in the middle of July. That is the fact about local tomatoes, they don’t grow until the weather gets hot and then it takes them a couple of months to make the fruit.

Our tomatoes look good in the field. They smell like tomatoes too – it is fun to realize that the smell of a tomato plant and the smell of the tomato fruit are the same. They guys are busy tying up the tomatoes as I type this. At the end of the day whey they return to punch out before going home they have the unmistakable green hands, shirt sleeves an paints that only come from working in the tomato field for a day.

Enjoy your boxes this week - Thaddeus