| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| FebruaryViolet |
Posted - Aug 07 2009 : 07:35:04 AM
Mom and I took Violet to the Boone County 4H Utopia Fair (note: emphasis on 4H and agriculture) last night so she could see the animals and we could eat fair food  ...we try to eat something different everytime, so last night we went to the 4h fundraising mess hall where they had really good hamburgers, hot dogs, etc. They had this wonderful "fixin's" bar set up with what had to be the most beautiful homegrown tomato slices I've ever seen--thick sliced, deep red, absolutely flavorful tomatoes that came from their gardens.
While I was loading up my burger with onions and tomatoes, this perfectly normal, nice-looking older gentleman came up beside me. He circled the table several times and then said to me, "Do you suppose that tomato is alright to eat?" I sortof looked at him funny..."why?" I asked..."Well, it's really dark red. I wonder if it's spoiled--it's been sitting out, too....!"
Honestly. I just looked at the man like he had three heads. Are we that far removed from our food that we believe the anemic orangey flavorless tomatoes that we get at Kroger are "good" and "healty"?
I know, I know, it takes all kinds, but he wasn't a spring chicken-- Please don't tell me he's never had a homegrown tomato?!?!
Musings from our family in the Bluegrass http://sweetvioletmae.blogspot.com/ |
| 25 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| Maryjane Lee |
Posted - Aug 11 2009 : 2:38:47 PM
Oh girls what funny stories! If I were drinking a glass of water I would have choked myself to death laughing! Farmgirls are so much fun!
Hugs!
Maryjane Lee
Farmgirl #44
http://sweetsassysadielee.blogspot.com
http://thebeehivecottage.blogspot.com
http://beehivecottage.etsy.com
http://sassysadielee.etsy.com
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| 4HMom |
Posted - Aug 11 2009 : 05:57:14 AM
Carol Sue,
I grew lemon cucs for the first time this year. A late frost killed all but one plant and yesterday I picked my one and only cuc! Ate it right there in the garden and LOVED it. I'll definately plant more next year.
"Be the change you want to see in the world" -Gandhi |
| Annab |
Posted - Aug 11 2009 : 03:31:33 AM
Yea. If it was just a regular 'ole 'mater --that IS a head scratcher.
And I bet that conversation w/ the crop duster would have been interesting
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| Carol Sue |
Posted - Aug 10 2009 : 6:01:26 PM
I have to admit girls, you have made me laugh so hard and my daugher as well as I have read this to her. It takes all kinds girls, and figure this, they gave us a good laugh which is good for our health!!!! I grow lemon cucs and beleive you me people can't figure that one out etiher....is it a lemon shaped like a cucumber....or the next one....is it a cuc that tastes like a lemon.....lol. It is a round little cucumber that has a refreshing taste to it that we love.....you just gotta laugh....then share with them
www.Quitemoments.blogspot.com |
| Laila |
Posted - Aug 10 2009 : 11:28:31 AM
I think it is really scary that people have no idea where there food comes from. Some schools are planting small gardens and teaching the kids which is a great start but I think the general public remains ignorant of how food is grown. People don't realize how the farmers in this country are regulated but all the food imported from other countries is not. I really think we are headed for very scary times.
Laila |
| Bonnie Ellis |
Posted - Aug 10 2009 : 10:44:55 AM
I think that was a good opportunity to let him in on what we have known all along, fresh is better. I wouldn't have shared the tomato with him, but have encouraged him to buy a burger and try it for himself. We DO have to spread the word. I feel sorry for him. I LOVE home grown tomatoes, especially heirloom ones.
Bonnie Ellis Minnesota
grandmother and orphan farmgirl |
| FebruaryViolet |
Posted - Aug 10 2009 : 05:40:06 AM
Oh gosh...I've read and reread my post(s) and didn't see where I described it as a purple tomato...deep, dark red, like super-wonderfully ripe for the eatin', but not purple..That I guess I could understand his confusion and concern! It took me a bit too, to not think those tomatoes "tasted" purple!
This was your regular ole' beefsteak, early boy, big boy type that you can even find at Lowe's, for us "layman gardeners"...It just happened to be homegrown and was picked at just the right time--one of those little 4h-ers really knows their maters :) I guess that's why I was so taken aback--it was just a regular ole' tomato, nothing fancy, not an heirloom, and he STILL didn't know it was good.
Musings from our family in the Bluegrass http://sweetvioletmae.blogspot.com/ |
| electricdunce |
Posted - Aug 09 2009 : 6:29:22 PM
It is sad to think someone wouldn't recognize a real tomato when he saw it, but I suppose not everyone is lucky enough to know what real food is...
Karin
Farmgirl Sister #153
"Give me shelter from the storm" - Bob Dylan
http://moodranch.blogspot.com
http://domesticnonsense.etsy.com |
| acairnsmom |
Posted - Aug 09 2009 : 5:15:57 PM
Well, you all know chocolate milk comes from the brown cows don't you? 
Thanks for bringing a smile to my face reading some of these funny (but true) questions! Our state "funny question" was a woman asking a park ranger what time of year do the deer turn into elk?
Audrey
Toto, we're not in Kansas any more! |
| kpaints |
Posted - Aug 09 2009 : 1:42:42 PM
Well, there are a lot of us out there that have never heard of nor seen anything but a red tomato. And there are those in my family who have never grown a single tomato in their lives who think I am really 'country'! So with that I must tell you that I have not hibernated all my life, I grew up in Seattle and later from the 60's on lived on the east side of the mountains (in the state of Wa). I again lived in the 'city', however, my mother did teach me to can when I was young and I did a lot of that. I have never been to a farm, although, I had relatives who lived on them back in So. Dakota. As one of you said these different tomatoes have been around for almost 100 years. But I had never seen any strange looking tomatoes until recently. I too would have wondered at a purple tomato. I got some seeds from Emilee Gettle not too long ago and was amazed at the different varities that are out there. I was in Brazil awhile back and saw so many fruits I had never even seen. It is a great big wide wide wonderful world out there, unfortunately, we often don't know what is available.
I too must at least admit that there are many olders citizens who do have memory and dementia problems so they may ask silly questions. It is a shame but sometimes I forget simple things and feel I am headed that way. I hope that others will not think I am just a real dummy! Because I know I am sounding dumb and it is very embarrassing. There are lots of medical problems that cause memory lapses.
Lily, that was sweet of you to listen to the 'organic crop duster', he has had so many brain killing chems in his system over the years I am not surprised. :D
Find your joy and live it. http://cheneybaglady.blogspot.com/http://www.kpaints.etsy.com http://www.thevintagebaglady.etsy.com FG #377 |
| Alee |
Posted - Aug 09 2009 : 12:26:58 PM
Oh my word! I am stunned! Things are getting bad if people think that tomatoes shouldn't be RED!
Alee
Farmgirl Sister #8
www.awarmheart.com
www.farmgirlalee.blogspot.com
www.allergyjourneys.blogspot.com
Put your pin on the farmgirl map! www.farmgirlmap.blogspot.com |
| ponypower |
Posted - Aug 09 2009 : 09:16:38 AM
Wow, I have a similar story. I was eating an "organic" salad at a local coffee shop that had lots of organic choices on the menu when I was asked by a gentleman,..."excuse me miss,...can I ask you a question,..can you tell me what organic means?". Well I was in a rush and at first I though he was joking but then I realized that he honestly meant it. So I slowed down and told him and we got to talking and you know what he told me,.....he was a crop duster for 30 years. Can you imagine? |
| dutchy |
Posted - Aug 08 2009 : 05:04:23 AM
LOL!!! I grew up in the city, lived in apartments all of my childhood years and beyond. BUT even I knew as an little bitty girl that milk came from cows, eggs from chickens and tomatoes from plants.
!!  I almost choked when I read about the rabbit eggs
Hugs from Marian/Dutchy, a farmgirl from the Netherlands :)
My personal blog:
http://just-me-a-dutch-girl.blogspot.com/
Almost daily updates on me and mine :)
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| Annab |
Posted - Aug 08 2009 : 03:32:49 AM
ok, sorry this is a little late
cherokee purple is the variety that turns really dark
very flavorful and super tasty
you just can't beat a 'mater sandwich this time of year!
pity for the folks for all they'll even know about the cruddy store bought produce phooey!
as for loading up there at the fair. As long as the food was prepared with gloved hands and not covered w/ buzzing flies, I'd have probably have dug in too.
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| 1badmamawolf |
Posted - Aug 07 2009 : 6:11:16 PM
That real garden at the white house is being grown in contaminated soil, they had a big thing about last week.
"Treat the earth well, it was not given to you by your parents, it was loaned to you by your children" |
| 4HMom |
Posted - Aug 07 2009 : 3:40:44 PM
Kristin, at least I have LITTLE hope for the gov. officials. At least there's a real garden at the Whitehouse now (thanks Michelle) so maybe, just maybe, our food laws will get more real and less ridiculous? A girl can hope, can't she? 
"Be the change you want to see in the world" -Gandhi |
| vintagediva1 |
Posted - Aug 07 2009 : 2:25:51 PM
Let the tennis skirted gals scoff at the hom canned jams and pickles but we will all know how to feed our families in the case of a disaster and I don't think the tennis courts will even be open for business.
Michele
www.2vintagedivas.etsy.com
www.stitchingby2sisters.etsy.com
Love that good ole vintage junk |
| kristin sherrill |
Posted - Aug 07 2009 : 1:36:55 PM
I know who the guy was, ya'll. He had to have been a government official, like maybe a congressman or senator. Or maybe even a close friend of our pres. Because it's those people who are passing all these stupid food laws all the time. They just have never seen "real" food before and when they do they freak out about it's real look.
A few weeks ago at the market I sell at a mother and her poor little son were walking around looking at every booth. They came to mine with all my fresh green beans and field peas. He said he would love to try some beans. His mommy said she didn't think he'd like them. That's all. I kept trying to get him to eat a raw bean and she kept trying to get away. She said she wouldn't even know how to cook them. He did pop a field pea in his mouth and said he liked it. Poor kid. She did have a few tomatoes in a bag. That's easy to fix, though.
It's people like this that we have suck picky sick kids these days. What I hated is her telling the boy SHE didn't think he'd like it. Never encouraged him to go ahead and try it. Poor kid.
Kris
Happiness is simple. |
| crafter |
Posted - Aug 07 2009 : 11:22:54 AM
sounds like too much tv watchin' I know when my parents watch the news too much- all of a sudden they have the same problem or ate the same thing-crazy I tell you! Get out and enjoy the great outdoors and shut the boobtube off!
xoxo-Lori
Thank GOD I'm a Country Girl! |
| Bellepepper |
Posted - Aug 07 2009 : 11:20:11 AM
You don't have to come from a very big city to be farm ignorant. Oklahoma City for instance. Not exactly CITY CITY. While on a business trip in Western KS with a lady from OKC we passed farm after farm of Sunflowers. The lady was amaized. She said it looked like they had been planted in a row. I told her, they were. She said, why? I ask her if she had ever eaten a sunflower seed or used sunflower oil. OH, was her answer. Then My grand d-i-l from OKC was here for the first time and grandson was showing her the garden. She pointed to the greenbean row and ask if that was corn? There was blooms and small beans on it at the time. She was obviously trying to make an impression by asking questions, even really really dumb ones.
Belle |
| FebruaryViolet |
Posted - Aug 07 2009 : 10:58:35 AM
I appreciate your thoughts, Jennifer....wanted to clarify (and I'm NOT AT ALL trying to be offensive to any gals over 55) but when I said "older" I mean like, early 60's, like my mom :) Not like someone's sweet grandpa :)
Musings from our family in the Bluegrass http://sweetvioletmae.blogspot.com/ |
| Jennifer Mulkey |
Posted - Aug 07 2009 : 09:38:19 AM
You know, I just wonder, in the case of this older gentleman, if maybe he was just being overly cautious? When people get older sometimes their immune systems get very shaky, and the least little thing can set them off into a spell of illness, so maybe he was just kind of scared that he might get ill? I have quite a few elderly aunts and uncles right now, 70's on up and it seems the older they get, the more scared they get of anything. It's really kind of sad when you think about it, that they are scared about all kinds of things. Imagine walking around half scared to eat a tomato? But that happens when we get older, and maybe he has just a touch of dementia and doesn't remember much about tomatoes?
Just throwing out some thoughts there :)
Jenny |
| FebruaryViolet |
Posted - Aug 07 2009 : 09:27:47 AM
Oh, Katie, I am the silly "city folk"...I've always just been on the "outside" of rural with family members who farm and sortof "learned" me :)
It does take all kinds...like I said, it all just boils down to common sense for me, and it seems so decidedly lacking around here most of the time!!!
Musings from our family in the Bluegrass http://sweetvioletmae.blogspot.com/ |
| katie-ell |
Posted - Aug 07 2009 : 09:22:33 AM
Yes, they were store-bought tomatoes that were the problem . . . I know what you mean about intolerance for small town and family farms . . . but I also am a bit sensitive to the 'them' vs 'us' mentality overall. I guess I don't like the 'silly city folk' talk, even though it's sometimes warranted. Just my sensitivity, having grown up rural and now being suburban/urban.
And, wow, we buy all the homecanned jams and jellies we can find here at our farmers' markets! I'm amazed that someone would turn up their nose. Takes all kinds.
www.youaretoocreative.blogspot.com |
| FebruaryViolet |
Posted - Aug 07 2009 : 09:13:51 AM
No, not everyone is, and he might have health concerns, but our area has become increasinlgy intolerant of farms and "small town". They like it when it's convenient, like in the fall with pumpkin patches, but overall, farms, tractors on the road and livestock have become a big source of contention here.
Katie, weren't they store bought/factory farmed tomatoes? Kroger and other stores pulled all theirs because they were from large growers.
Musings from our family in the Bluegrass http://sweetvioletmae.blogspot.com/ |
