It was only the other day I learned that the reason for this is mostly due to how they ripen, which I’m sure you already know.
For those that don’t, when you pick a tomato from your garden, you’ve picked it at your desired color and freshness. When you buy a tomato from the supermarket (most if not all), you’re buying a tomato that wasn’t fully ripened on th vine, but instead is blasted with some ethylene, a naturally occurring gas that normally is produced by tomatoes actively ripening, causing the tomato to continue to mature but not develop some of the complexity of taste you get from proper vine ripening. They’re often picked a little green when in super-farms because they’re firmer and less prone to damaging that way, and then ripened during packaging. That, and the tomato you eat from supermarkets and fast food are all super homogenous and bred specifically for mass yield.
Grocery stores sell vine ripened tomatoes. They tend to also sell locally grown ones from local farmers which taste just as good as the ones you can grow at home. Any other ones you should just steer clear of for the reasons you listed.
I can easily go through a tomato a day. The only thing limiting me is the cost. if I grew my own I would definitely go through at least 2 tomatoes a day.
We had so many last year that we had to freeze a load, they’re actually really nice frozen - I liked freezing them whole and they make the coolest sound when you knock them into each other, then while frozen cut into wedges and eat. Really refreshing and great texture.
Too many people think growing shit also takes a lot of effort. Nah, literally just plant shit, weed once, then wait. You literally don't even have to water in most areas lol.
People think gardening or farming takes a lot of effort. It does if you want a pretty little area that's more eye pleasing. But if you just want food? Put seeds in. Wait. Food lol. Might not be the greatest harvest but any seed you'd buy at a store is hearty as fuck now.
Edit: Holy shit, yes guys. People on the internet live in the desert and even Antarctica too. My comment wasn't meant for you contrarian buttwipes lol. It was meant for anyone who doesn't live in a hellhole and has access to a little land lol. And even in those hellholes and places with shitty soil, it's just because you're trying to grow shit not meant for there lol.
This comment is brought to you by someone living in a temperate area, with land that they have access to, that also doesn’t scorch everything that tries to grow.
A lot of people think growing shit takes a lot of effort because it does for them.
That being said, hydroponics is a very nice option that works for me.
On the other hand, I’ve been expanding and fiddling my system all summer long for god know how many hours. That reminds me that my nute res is almost empty…
I don’t know what your neck of the woods is like but here in “High altitude misery land, were subsoil is the only soil in your yard and it’ll freeze in June because fuck you” it’s a struggle to get anything out of the garden.
This year, something went wrong with the peppers and tomatoes I started indoors (I suspect the potting soil) and they never grew over 1.5 inches tall, even after they were hardened off and planted outdoors in proper soil. As such, I bought a pepper and a tomato from a retail store. The pepper is still only about a foot tall, but the tomato was actually bushing out fairly well, about 4’ tall… and then something ate it down to maybe 3’-2.5’-ish. The squash I started indoors did much better and survived hardening off well. After I put them into the garden the earwigs actually waited a whole week to eat them down to stumps. And I absolutely need to water… it takes about two days for the plants to start wilting.
My garden makes me appreciate the supermarket every year.
My soil is also “clay with weeds on top”, but somehow the weeds manage to grow, so I’m not losing hope. I’m digging it up, mixing with peat+manure+last year’s grass clippings, and hoping for the best. It helps to have a neighbor sell bullshit by the ton. My Mrs., on the other hand, would prefer to buy planting soil by the truckload.
A late frost eated almost all my apples, bell peppers, and whatnot, this year - everything that wasn’t covered. What was covered, though, survived fine. You can make a basic greenhouse-like thing out of bent sticks and some translucent fabric or plastic. It needn’t be clear.
As for watering - get a drip-feed system, the basic ones cost sth like 50€ here. Hook it up to a tank placed high, and add a timer, or just set up alarm clock to open it every day for 10 minutes. It’s so much comfier than dragging around hoses or cans. For bonus points, get rain catchment tanks and install them high. Your plants will grow better when watered with warm water.
It is more about independence and taking part in growing what you eat.
Some are more inclined and others do not have a inkling for it.
Nothing about the farmers. In fact, I would propose that our farmers need more independence from greedy companies and gov’t interference.
The farmers and community should have a bigger say on the matter. Instead of having bigger and bigger farms that are becoming just like big greedy corporations.
No fault to the farmers and the like, this is due to the muscle of corps./gov’t/lobbiest making things worse then they should.
Joining together, as common folk, against greed and the wealthy class should be our focus.
the system depends on you only being able to do one thing effectively, and needing to pay other people to do all the things you need but can’t do. When you do that, you have to go through several layers of government and corporate bureaucrats who all squeeze you for a little bit extra just because they’ve positioned themselves between you and what you need to live. To be self-sufficient is to cut all of these middlemen out from between you and the necessities of life. Gardening is a revolutionary act, it’s propaganda of the deed writ small.
The problem isn’t living together, it’s the people that exploit others based on that fact. People can live together without exploiting each other - that’s what a commune is.
No I just want rid of exploitative systems like capitalism and imperialism. Have you never heard of things like the kibtuzim in Israel? Unlike the Soviet Union they have actual working socialism bordering on communism. I don’t think they live in forests.
Communes can scale above the level your suggesting to at least hundreds if not thousands of people. If it can’t scale above that I still don’t see that as a real problem because communes can work with each other, possibly using a different trading system between them.
Edit: There are several socialist/communist economic systems that have been theorised that have communities interacting using a system that is separate from how individuals interact economically like decentralised centralised planning. In a system like that you have the local government/committee control the local economy and then have governments from different areas trade with each other on behalf of their citizens.
There are also systems that don’t use communes at all such as socialist market economy. Here workers all have a share in the business they work for and get profit shares.
Depends on where you live. If you live in Italy, you can just throw random shit around your house and a couple of months later you will crap loads of free food!
We had 1/2 acre and planted a bunch of things, ate for free. Water was from a well so not even a water bill. Best tasting veg ever. Potatoes though, those are hard labour.
Store bought tomatoes seem to taste more fucking bland every year. Like I have to spend $6 per small bag to get “gourmet” tomatoes to even taste like a tomato. It’s actually infuriating. I grow tomatoes now literally not to save money but just because grocery store tomatoes (at least in my area) are trash.
Store tomatoes are not tomatoes. Unless you’re buying somewhere legit and expensive af, the tomatoes you see in stores are picked green and gassed to turn red. They are dog shit. Probably worse, actually. Seek out local farms near you and get the good shit (and often cheaper than places like whole foods).
Tomatoes are one thing I never buy in a store, except sauce/canned tomatoes, as those products are derived from ripe tomatoes.
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