Tomatoes

    After my worse crop ever last year, I am happy to announce that this year I am getting a lot of tomatoes in my greenhouse.  The reason is that I got rid of the tree roots that were sucking my greenhouse dry.  This summer with all rain (a lot of which drops into the greenhouse, and the additional water from a drip hose, the tomatoes are putting out a lot of fruit.  Tomatoes have always been one of my favorite foods, whether eaten fresh or cooked into some kind of sauce.

    My grandfather and uncle had large commercial greenhouse fields where they grew tomatoes and I spent many a summer day as a kid, picking tomatoes.  I think of those days often when I go into my small greenhouse and see the tomatoes.

    While most people think of tomatoes as a vegetable, they are actually a fruit, and more specifically a berry.  Despite this fact, in 1893 the US Supreme Court declared the tomato a vegetable for tariff reasons.  

    The tomato was developed by the those agricultural geniuses, the Meso-American Indians.  The Spaniards introduced it to the rest of the world, and it is now part of different ethnic cuisine across the globe.  

    It is nice that this year we again have enough tomatoes to whiz up in the blender and can, so that we can enjoy their rich taste throughout the winter.

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