Who says you can’t go back?
All those tomatoes, all those seeds. I felt the old stirrings. So when I got home this evening I picked everything that was not absolutely green, paused momentarily to snap a faintly artsy shot (see above) and repaired to the kitchen. Slice and scoop, with a nice small teaspoon, pausing only to munch the shells that weren’t too rotten or blemished. There’s nothing to beat a salted sun-warm tomato, except a salted sun-warm tomato from which you have just saved the seeds.
After who knows how long (I do believe I might have been in a state of flow) a bowlful of seeds and a pile of empty shells cried out for another photograph (see below).
The shells will go in the bin (no composter on a terrace) and the bowl will go outside to ferment. There’s just enough time to get clean seeds drying before I have to hit the road again.
Boy, does that feel good.
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Hi Jeremy, from where I’m sitting, even your “tomatoes with issues” look tasty compared to whats available in the UK. Good to see that old habits die hard…
But, but, but … you can’t judge a tomato on looks. I’ve seen perfectly beautiful tomatoes that also tasted fantastic.
People are going to wonder why you linked to the Heritage seed Library, given that, like Trotsky, I’ve been carefully airbrushed out of history.
More interesting still, I was gobsmacked to see that Seeds of Change is now supporting the HSL. When I were a lad, they served HDRA with a spiky lawyer’s cease-and-desist letter for having the temerity to use a normal English phrase on a seed envelope. They’re also the only company I know that had the cojones to trademark a mandala-type design that they “borrowed” from some Hopi Indians. But who cares; we’re all organic together, right?
Organic? I’m with John Tierney on this one, I hate organic. So these toms are probably really tasty, especially that black one at the back…
@Duncan Hull – So, you prefer ecoganic, as in that photo? It actually tells me more, I think, given that the meaning of “organic” — even within the food business — has been so hijacked by rules and regulations.
@Jeremy –
Howabout “natural agriculture“. No thats not much better either…
Not much better, Duncan, especially when you consider its provenance.