Posted on 04/13/2005 7:34:42 PM PDT by SJackson
So, have you seen the news stories about the “ugly” tomatoes yet? In 1999, national produce handler Procacci Brothers began growing an unusual-looking but better-tasting heirloom tomato they trademarked as the UglyRipe. But this year the Florida Tomato Committee has refused to allow Procacci Brothers to sell the wrinkly UglyRipes because the heirloom variety doesn’t meet the committee’s “round tomato” appearance standards. According to The New York Times, the committee recently defended its action, writing “these requirements serve to ensure customer satisfaction and improve grower returns. Not holding the UglyRipe tomato to these same standards defies orderly marketing and provides it unfair, undue marketing advantage.”
The committee’s action has in no way “ensured customer satisfaction.” Consumers are being denied a chance to rediscover great-tasting tomatoes. And as for “improved grower returns,” Procacci Brothers says it has lost about $3 million so far, and if the USDA won’t overrule the committee, the produce company may be forced to seek congressional action.
Apparently, we need to let the committee members (and the USDA and Congress) know that the tomatoes they send to our supermarkets are so bland and tasteless that many of us are no longer even tempted to buy them. If they want to “improve grower returns,” then they need to start selling better-tasting tomatoes. (The committee’s e-mail address is info@floridatomatoes.org; e-mail Mike Johanns, the Secretary of Agriculture, at mike.johanns@usda.gov.)
Tomatoes are not the only supermarket food that’s been damaged by decades of breeding and regulating only for higher yields, longer shelf life and greater profits. Mealy peaches; hard, flavorless strawberries; wrinkly green beans; flavorless, degermed corn meal — all too often supermarket products offer only faint hints of the rich flavors these foods can and should have.
For those of us who want food with flavor, the answer is to grow a garden or buy from local farmers. In this spring issue, we present seven articles to help you grow great food, including a story about how to maximize the flavor of homegrown tomatoes (Page 89).
Better flavor is not the only reason to grow your own produce. Food production is a central aspect of wise living because:
1. It’s empowering. There are few things more reassuring in today’s stressful world than knowing you have the ability to meet your most basic needs. Empty supermarket shelves during winter storms remind us how dependent many of us are on a food supply that is produced by strangers in fields and factories thousands of miles away. But those of us with canned peaches and tomato sauce in the cellar, and raspberries and asparagus tucked into our freezers, can feel proud and more secure.
2. Homegrown food can be more nutritious. On Page 22 in “Green Gazette,” we report on more evidence that the overall nutritional quality of the industrial food supply is declining. In this case, the research suggests that older heirloom varieties may be more nutritious than newer hybrids developed primarily for high yields and long shelf life.
3. Growing your own food is great fun. There are so many delicious and nutritious little-known crops that are seldom found in supermarkets but are easy and rewarding to grow in your garden. We present three of them in this issue: high-protein amaranth (Page 48), super-nutritious purslane (Page 55) and exotic snake gourds (Page 116).
I'm growing my own food this year. What I can't grow I'm going to buy at a local farm stand.
Home grown tomatoes taste SO much better than mass produced!
I couldn't give a toss what they look like as long as they taste good.
There's a great advertisement for supermarket chain Tesco in Ireland at the moment. It's for their value mushrooms.
The advert goes like this:
'This is a Tesco value mushroom. Ugly isn't it? But what are going to do? Admire it, or chuck it in a casserole?'.
They sell those in my local supermarket. I didn't care how they looked but they were more expensive (a tomatoes ain't cheap now for some reason) and I didn't taste any difference between the regular old tomatoes I normally buy.
I;ve had some of these uglys, but didn't know they had their own name. They tasted like a lighter version of a healthy beefsteak tomato. Very good!
Years later ... "Newly appointed General Secretary of the American Soviet Politburo, Comrade Johnson got his political start years ago as head of the Florida Tomato Committee, battling for the right of all glorious workers to eat precisely, perfectly round, perfectly red, perfectly tasteless tomatos."
AARRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHH She;s following me !!!!!!!!!! AAAAGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHH
I love tomatoes with a little olive oil, maybe some avocado too. A homegrown tomato is a delicious thing.
Ping!
Anything home grown and consumed as quickly as possible after being picked tastes better. Once you've eaten young peas or young potatoes right from the garden, you can't look at a can of DelMonte ever again. Of course it isn't always possible to do this -- that's what the farmer's markets are for. I don't know about this "ugly" business -- I'm glad homely crops like rutabagas don't have beauty standards.
Now that's one ugly tomato.
I'm still looking for this year's crop of Tomacco
Have they done something with the potatoes also? I got a couple last week that looked fine. But they were mostly bruised looking on the inside. I thought it was just one but both turned out bad.
Are the seeds available? I'd like to try them out this year if so.
LOL
In the hinterlands, we've been growing and eating ugly tomatoes for decades.
Tastes like a tomato, looks like hell.
Much better than: Looks like a tomato, tastes like cold wet cardboard nothingness
Try salt, pepper, garlic powder, oregano and extra virgin olive oil over an heirloom tomato. Top it off with some crusty French bread, and you have a feast.
Garlic + Olive Oil + Sea Salt + tomato (sliced, chunked, quartered, etc.)
Soak 1 hour at room temp. MMMmmmmmmmmm!
You're growing your own food in Manhattan? Where do you keep your cow?
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