Yes, this really IS about gardening!
Many of (us) have raised home gardens, if only leaf lettuce, tomatoes in a pot, or something simple like that. I don’t think anything tastes better than “home-grown” veggies, especially tomatoes! It’s not only that WE raised them; they just taste better when “vine ripened”.
A lot of people have not had the pleasure of home gardening because of their environment. They live in the cities or in a condo where that is prohibited, etc. For that reason, unless they purchase items at a “farmer’s market”, they just don’t know that there is a difference.
Commercial producers, including growers, canners/packers, take what started out to be good, quality foods but have interrupt nature’s process, for their prurient interests. First, many foods, especially tomatoes, are harvested “green” – not having reached maturity (that gives it the best flavor). They are then treated with chemicals that “preserve” them (keeping them from maturing or rotting) while in storage. Usually they are “stored” until the winter or when the fruit is not “in season”.
When the market prices are at a premium, they insert another gas (usually ethylene (C2H4) that is also found naturally in ripening tomatoes) that gives them the “natural” color that they would have achieved under normal growing conditions.
That’s why, when getting a tomato on your favorite burger, it tastes somewhat less than cardboard.
In fairness there are some higher scale restaurants that buy their produce from “regional growers” who provide “vine ripened” foods. Of course you will pay more but you DO get real, live tomatoes – or lettuce – or onion. A friend of mine raised primarily lettuce that was sold to “regional distributors” who then sold it to higher-quality stores and restaurants. If your supermarket has a section of “organically” or locally-produced foods, you could have found his lettuce there.
(Growing Organically is a broad subject – suitable for a future posting).
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If you have the time and/or the place, home gardening is a lot of fun. When I lived in TN, I had an extra lot that I used for a garden. For my first attempt at “farming” I set out 101 broccoli plants! That’s all – just broccoli. I nurtured each plant with water and fertilizer and insect repellent – the normal things you would do for a garden. A number of weeks later EVERY plant survived and 97 of them produced beautiful heads of broccoli!
What do you DO with a hundred broccoli heads that have all matured at the same time (plus, as many know, broccoli will produce smaller “side shoots” (heads) that can also be harvested)??! I gave the stuff away until friends/family were full-up on the veggies. Some I poked into a freezer. But, some had to be just let die.
I learned after that to diversify by mixing up the variety of things raised in the garden.
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After I moved to Florida, I thought that I could have a windfall garden with the temperate climate. We rented the first 7 years and did not plow up the back yard. But, when we built our own house (that has a second lot) I planned and constructed a small “raised garden” – 4 x 16 feet with irrigation (sprinklers) throughout. I infused tons of peat with the native sand, to give an even better growing media.
I’m all set, I thought. I first had to learn the different growing seasons that are experience in Florida. You set your tomatoes out in late January (not June like “up north”). You can also have a second growing season starting in late fall, but you have to watch the forecast regarding colder weather in Nov/Dec.
I’ll at least have plenty of tomatoes, cukes, carrots, etc. – grown “organically”, I thought. Well, I did. But, I quickly learned that there are a lot more “critters” in Florida that just LOVE fresh veggies as well! The normal insect repellents just do not do anything to the rabbits, possums, raccoons, armadillos, the birds and all the insects that have been “conditioned by nature” to resist them.
I tried to stop them by putting a wire fence around the growing area. The birds flew in though the opened top and gorged themselves. So, I put a top on all that to keep the birds out. Then the rabbits, possums and coons dug down under the 8 x 8” treated-wood foundation with which I had framed the garden and consumed what was left.
A year ago, I set out four tomato plants inside my screened pool area. I watered and fed them by hand. When the blooms appeared I manually pollinated them with a “Q-tip” since there were no bees, etc. in the enclosed area. The blossoms produced their fruit and grew to about HALF the normal size – about the size of a large golf ball.
I retired from gardening in Florida.
Soon I hope to relocate to a more “temperate” climate. Maybe I can have a garden there.
