North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["Brungardt, Sam" <Sam.Brungardt@state.mn.us>]

I'm sure you are correct about adventurous chefs helping to popularize
out-of-the-ordinary produce.  Another difference may be that the season
for fresh, locally grown produce is quite short in Minnesota.  My theory
is that Minnesotans are just darn happy to finally have fresh tomatoes
and don't ask many questions about what kind, taste, etc. -- Sam
Brungardt, St. Paul, Minn.

-----Original Message-----
From: nafex-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org
[mailto:nafex-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Spidra Webster
Sent: Tuesday, October 24, 2006 11:09 PM
To: North American Fruit Explorers
Subject: Re: [NAFEX] Tomato anecdotes



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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