wdolson
Posts: 10398
Joined: 6/28/2006
From: Near Portland, OR
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quote:
ORIGINAL: geofflambert
Here's another peeve. Angus beef. What's the big deal? Did our lives change when fast food co.s started selling it? Losing perfectly good breeds because of this fad that was not started by consumers will lead to inbreeding. Some sellers say on their labels that the meat contained therein is 100% Angus. That's impossible for them to know and the American Angus Association certifies that beef is Angus if it appears to be "51%" (give or take ???) Angus. Here's what the test boils down to, if it has no horns and has a largely black coat, it's certified. In other words there is no real test. Anyone thinking marketing gimmick?
Similarly, tomatoes. If you're not growing them yourself the ones you can buy today have little taste. They bred them to not bruise in shipping and to stay ripe for a longer period, not to taste good. If you are growing them yourself put mosquito netting over them and pollinate them by hand so that the insect pollinators do not bring the crap tomato pollen to your crop. When I was growing up in farm country the tomatoes were amazing. Sigh. My brother and pretty much all the kids his age during the summer would hand harvest corn, riding in tractor pulled wagons. They weren't farmer's kids but USAF kids and city kids. The farmers really needed the help and the kids didn't cost much.
Most fruits meat is true to the plant/tree it came from regardless of the pollen source. Is it different for tomatoes?
Home grown fruit in most cases is superior to anything you can get in the store. Especially stone fruit. Growing up in Los Angeles we had a Santa Rosa plum tree in our back yard that produced the most fantastic plums imaginable. When I moved to Seattle I found some in the store and tried them, they were a massive disappointment, they had been picked way too green.
The trees will grow in the Northwest, but the springs are too cold for bees when the trees bloom, so they don't produce as well. I had one in Seattle and it produced some every year and one year when we had a very early spring, it was loaded. When we moved to Portland, I put one in here too. It was a spotty producer, but I'd have a week or two of ambrosia on a pit every summer. I planted another couple of plum trees 3 years ago to try and help with cross pollination. Then 2 years ago I started getting mason bees every spring. They operate in colder temperatures than honey bees and they did a wonder pollinating the older plum tree. It's set a ton of fruit the last three years. Last year we lost a lot of the crop to a hail storm in May (rare around here), but the remaining plums got massive. 2 years ago I was giving hug bags of plums to the neighbors every day. One neighbor liked them so much he planted two of them himself.
Now this year the younger trees are producing too and one of them appears to be a big producer. In a few weeks I think I'm going to have to prop up some branches or they will break.
We have outstanding soil here. This property was a dairy farm for about 70 years before it was sub-divided. The soil several feet down is still about 50% manure. The trees root into that and take off (I have a bunch of other fruit trees too).
I frequently look at fruit trees when I pass the bare root trees in the store just to check out what they have. I always look to see if they have a Santa Rosa plum. In my 27 years in the Northwest, I have only seen Santa Rosas twice in nurseries and it was when I was actually looking for one to plant. Odd that.
If anyone lives in a climate where its warm enough for the bees to be out in early March and some space, I recommend a Santa Rosa plum tree. When tree ripened, they are quite possibly the best fruit in the world. That opinion is shared by about 90% of the people I give the plums to.
Anyway, I don't do much with tomatoes. I don't like raw tomatoes and my SO is allergic to raw tomatoes. I do grow Romas and make homemade marinara sauce. Both of us like the homemade stuff better than anything we've found store bought. My tomato vines have set some fruit already, but they aren't done blooming yet.
Bill
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RE: OT Pet Peeves - 
St. Louis moved south a few years back as far as planting zones go. The summer before last I think there was a stretch of six weeks where the temperature topped 100° F every day. A lot of things I used to grow won't anymore. Okra is wooden no matter when you pick them. I've tried two years in a row to grow rhubarb, it comes out of the ground and just withers. I have a friend who gave up on tomatoes too. Hot peppers grow fine (I particularly like the jalapenos) and I have some blackberry plants going. Roses still grow well (some hybrids). I used to grow squash and zucchini, might try that again. Most herbs do fine or at least in spring and fall. Tomatillos do ok.
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