On Wed, 1 Sep 2004 13:42:06 -0500, "Swingman" wrote:

"Bob Schmall" wrote in message

Got any wood-frame (Obww) farmer's tomato stands in your area? We're just
wrapping up the second coldest summer on record, and I finally, today, the
First of September, found ripe tomatoes at the local stand. Sheesh.

Global warming, eh?

We do have an abundance of farmer's produce markets and stands down here in
Texas, but most of the tomatoes are still of the hybrid variety that are
"engineered" more for shelf life than taste. I've been growing my own for a
while, on the front porch in an "earth box", but the varieties available as
seedlings are the same, basically tasteless, hybrids that you get at the
markets.

Taste being one of the last things to go, and wanting to take full advantage
of that fact, it is apparent that if I want to taste a real tomato again,
like the one's we had as kids on the farm, I am going to have to go to
extraordinary measures to do so. Next year I want to plant some old heirloom
seeds, in a flat like we used to do, then transplant to the "earth box", and
see if that doesn't improve things.

The farmers that come to the Union Square Greenmarket have so many
"heirloom" tomato varieties that I have to believe seeds are available
somewhere. I have no place to grow them, but they sure are fun to eat.



Rodney Myrvaagnes NYC J36 Gjo/a

"WooWooism lives" Anon grafitto on the base of the Cuttyhunk breakwater light