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nafex - Re: [NAFEX] Tomato anecdotes

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  • From: Spidra Webster <spidra@speakeasy.net>
  • To: North American Fruit Explorers <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [NAFEX] Tomato anecdotes
  • Date: Tue, 24 Oct 2006 21:09:18 -0700


On Oct 24, 2006, at 7:03 AM, Jim Fruth wrote:

I spent six years selling at farmers' markets in California before I
came to Minnesota. Californians actively sought new and different
vegetables and I didn't think Minnesotans would be any different. They are!

I live in Berkeley so I'm in food heaven. Jim's right that customers here love heirlooms, oddly colored and shaped fruits, etc. My favorite tomato so far is Black Krim. Though the farmers at our market are pretty good about cutting up samples, I bought Black Krim from Berkeley Horticultural Nursery taste untasted. Berkeley Hort does a reasonably good job of labeling their tomatoes with a description that includes something about the taste. Whatever they wrote about Black Krim intrigued me and I bought it.

I have been having trouble growing tomatoes. I've very close to the Bay and in the line of the fog. I'm not sure whether it's fungus or a virus but something has been slowly killing my tomatoes. They fruit, I get the first couple few, and the others never really get fully ripe. So I only had about 5 Black Krim last year but they were HEAVENLY. I must not be the only person in Berkeley who thinks so because I was a little late looking for tomato starts and Black Krim had sold out all over town.

One of the things that might make the difference between (certain denizens of) Californians and Minnesotans is that major cities in California tend to have restaurant scenes with chefs who popularize little known herbs, greens, vegetables and fruits. So maybe some folks turn up their noses at purple tomatoes until such and such chef gets rave writeup after rave writeup about her purple tomato bruschetta or ketchup or salsa or whatever.

Spidra Webster
http://www.spidra.com





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