Market Farming

["Tradingpost" <tradingpost AT lobo.net>]

I had a few ordinary Hale's Best cantaloupes last summer, just planted in
nitrogen poor, sandy soil amended with aged manure and not irrigated
enough, and they produced the sweetest melons I ever tasted. Maybe lush
growth and big melons are popular, but it's the taste that keeps customers
coming back and telling their neighbors. I had the same results with
tomatoes, with old cowboys claiming they hadn't tasted a real tomato like
that since their grandma had a garden. 

paul tradingpost AT lobo.net
http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/livingontheland
Beware of all enterprises that require new clothes. 
--Henry David Thoreau 
*********** REPLY SEPARATOR  ***********

On 8/8/2006 at 1:46 PM Pat Meadows wrote:

>On Tue, 8 Aug 2006 12:11:11 -0500, you wrote:
>
>>
>>Well, let me tell you what the fuss is all about - I just got back from 2

>>weeks in Provence and got to taste the real thing, fresh form the local 
>>farmer's markets. OH, MY GOD!!!!  It was like eating concentrated
perfume!
>>
>>So, what's the trick, has anybody grown them successfully in the US?  I 
>>suspect Alabama may be too warm for them, but I'm more than willing to 
>>experiment to see if I can come close to Nirvana.
>
>
>It's the 'terroir'.  :)
>
>I'm joking; I've just seen too many travel programs about France and
French
>wine.  'Terroir' - as I understand it - is the totality of the plant's
>environment; which obviously does matter tremendously.  But the French can
>be kind of over-the-top about it, making it into a wine-snob type of
thing.
>'It's a common little melon but I think you'll be amused by its
>pretensions.'  That sort of thing.  :)
>
>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terroir
>
>Pat
>-- 
>In the Appalachian Mountains in northern Pennsylvania
>Blog (mainly gardening and cooking related):
>http://www.entire-of-itself.blogspot.com/
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