Did you know the tomatoes you buy in the grocery store weren't red when they were picked from the vine? They were still green, then artifially turned red by ethylene gas. Why? Because tomatoes travel approximately 1,500 miles to reach most customers. If they were picked ripe, our tomatoes would start to rot before we even get them home.
Did you know you're not supposed to refrigrate tomatoes? That's how they lose their flavor, and it changes their texture. Yet, that's exactly how tomatoes are shipped cross-country -- in refrigerated trucks.
To preserve its taste and to cut down on global warming-causing food miles, try Essential Skill #28 in The Live Earth Global Warming Survival Handbook:
Grow your own tomato.
"Until you've tasted a ripe tomato picked from your backyard," writes author David de Rothschild, "you might find it hard to believe that growing your own food is the way of the future."
There are thousands of tomato varieties to choose from, but de Rothschild suggests Miracle Sweet, Celebrity or Brandywine if growing outside and Pixie, Patio, Toy Boy or Small Fry if growing indoors over the winter. To learn how to grow your own tomatoes, click this link to "Tomato Essentials" from the National Gardening Association.
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Here in Arizona, there are two ideal growing seasons for tomatoes (and presumably all vegetables), and one of those seasons typically starts in February. Perfect timing, only it's been freezing overnight lately, so we have to wait until the last freeze to plant. Apparently it works out perfectly because the freeze whiteflies and other pesky bugs.
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