Tuesday, August 01, 2006

Small, red, gorgeous



There’s nothing like home grown veg. I can’t see why everyone doesn’t do it. All you do is plant, pot, water and of course wage a constant war with pests, frosts, the elements, frosts, cats, frosts, over-watering, under-watering, worry about the effect of lacquering the plant with pesticides and, of course, frosts.

The benefits are dual. The first is that in terms of food-miles (this years obsession) the food has travelled from your back garden to your kitchen, so we’re talking food yards. It also means you are sticking it to the supermarkets, surely a good thing.

The real benefit is the taste. Tomatoes are basically sunlight and water - and that’s what they taste like. It’s like having summer on your tongue. Like veg should taste.

A supermarket tomato, though lovely normally, tasted different by comparison - it tastes of lorry and packing material, of underpaid picker’s hands, pesticides and profit.

Still, stick enough ranch dressing on it and it is, if I’m honest, usually fine.

2 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Yum! I love tomatoes---especially by themselves with a little bit of salt...or on a sandwich with mayo, pepper and onions....YUM. Someday I'll have some plants of my own. That day will most likely coincide with the demise of my cats.

1:50 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

And, by the way, thanks to your referring to miles and yards, I am beginning to think you are just an extremely smart farmer from Iowa who has figured out how to hijack an IP address from the UK and take on an alternate ego.

1:54 PM  

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