Nutritional Value - another reason to SFG

**sfg4uKim** 6/29/2011, 11:15 am

http://www.npr.org/2011/06/28/137371975/how-industrial-farming-destroyed-the-tasty-tomato?sc=fb&cc=fp

**Kelejan** 6/29/2011, 3:30 pm

That is an interesting article, ksroman. It confirms the reason I seldom buy tomatoes at the Supermarket.

I am so looking forward to harvesting my own toms, or at least buying from our Farmers' Market that starts this Saturday.

MarcyG 6/29/2011, 8:38 pm

That's disturbing!!!

acara 6/29/2011, 10:25 pm

A regurgitation of about 10 other articles on the subject since 2009, but stilll as good of a read as ever.

It's mostly factual & why there are so many people who grow their own tomato plants in FL.......and why everyone outside of FL thinks we are all nuts. Probably seems stupid to waste all the time & effort to grow them yourself, when it appears we are swimming in tomatos 365 days a year & they "auto-grow" in FL ..... but thats simply not the case.

As far as the commercial crops go....FL would do the country a favor if they just painted cow poop bright red, called it tomatoes & put that on he supermarket shelves instead.

Barkie 6/30/2011, 6:11 am

Welcome home Kim.

Garden advisor Geoff Hamilton said in the Uk in 1990 that farming had been well served by plant breeders who have bred "super-varieties" for uniform size, germinating all together, harvesting all at one go and for yield. Not for taste. Now, to give a balanced view, because we feel confident of the excellence of SFG to do so, and to be fair to people such as Geoff too, who also advocated using home made compost, it has to be said that tasty food arises from which varieties you plant and the way that you grow them. I notice that many of us grow heirloom varieties. I do because I don't want a glut or nothing situation but the main reason is that I value flavour more than yield.

Mamachibi 6/30/2011, 10:06 am

There are social justice issues with those grocery store tomatoes also. "Tomatoland" by Barry Estabrook is a real eye-opener.

Growing your own is a sure way to "know your farmer, know your food."

shannon1 7/1/2011, 12:54 am

I feel even better now about home growing in my tiny organic SFG urban farm. If you guys think it is only tomatoes where the taste has been traded for mechanical harvesting and other commercial reasons I guess you have not been to a food store in a while. Good for you! The variety of vegies I eat has gone down but I don't realy miss it. The only vegie I have been buying since my harvesting has started is lettuce but that will change as soon as it cools down.
Power To The SFG'ers

Barkie 7/1/2011, 5:54 am

shannon1 wrote:I feel even better now about home growing in my tiny organic SFG urban farm. If you guys think it is only tomatoes where the taste has been traded for mechanical harvesting and other commercial reasons I guess you have not been to a food store in a while. Good for you! The variety of vegies I eat has gone down but I don't realy miss it. The only vegie I have been buying since my harvesting has started is lettuce but that will change as soon as it cools down.
Power To The SFG'ers

You bet it isn't just tomatoes. About the only thing that tastes like home grown is frozen garden peas. We buy as little veg as possible between harvesting. Oh and you were right - we have sugar snap mangetout forming now. Very Happy

Denese 7/1/2011, 12:13 pm

That explains why I despise "winter" tomatoes. I pick 'em out of salads and off of sandwiches and burgers. Love real "vine ripened" tomatoes in the summer!

I have a diet program called Diet Power that gives the nutrient values of the food you log. It has 2 choices for tomatoes; those eaten from November through May and then those that are eaten June through October. The winter ones, of course, are lower in nutritional value.

herblover 7/3/2011, 1:46 pm

Tho only tomatoes I will buy at the grocery are grape tomatoes when I can't grow them or buy them at the farmer's market.

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