Homegrown tomato almost worth $64
By BILL DUNCAN
The View From Here
The long winterized spring has finally ended and my usual 35 tomato plants are beginning to take root in the black mud that is my garden soil in Roseburg’s Riversdale area. No real hint of the familiar yellow blossom as yet, but then these May days of late haven’t been overly heated.
Fortunately, in my mind’s eye I already see a harvest of the juicy red tomatoes that will soon become spaghetti sauce, salsa and the goodness of just a plain slice of a homegrown Brandywine in a BLT.
I will admit when I tell you I have planted my tomatoes in black mud, I lied. Over the years that I have been tilling my garden soil, adding compost and other amendments and I dare say there isn’t much black mud left in the mix.
There have been years when I had a lean crop, but lately, I have harvested bumper crops. Not long ago, I had to clean out the freezer and it broke my heart to discard a Ziploc bag of round, red baseballs, but the label said 2004 and my non-organic wife said they had to go because the vitamin C was frozen out of them.
As I dumped the tomatoes into my compost bin, I knew the seeds would reproduce when I composted the results at a later time. However, I couldn’t help but think of William Alexander and his book, "The $64 Tomato," a humorous account of his simple
dream of having a vegetable garden in his backyard. He made one basic mistake, he ran an audit on his expenses and learned that it cost him a staggering $64 to grow each tomato.
The book’s subtitle, tells it all: "How One Man Nearly Lost His Sanity,
Spent a Fortune, and Endured an Existential Crisis in the Quest
for the Perfect Garden."
But like Alexander, Americans plant tomatoes in their home gardens. I recall my brother-in-law, Wilkie Jennings, who lived in North Florida used bushel baskets, packed with leaf mold that amended his Florida sand in order to grow tomatoes. I have seen them growing in wash tubs or inside old tires.
Tomatoes are a source of vitamin C, vitamin A, beta carotene and lycopene which has been shown to be beneficial in reducing the risk of prostate cancer.
There is no real secret to the better flavor of a homegrown tomato. It is juicier because unlike the commercially grown varieties it does not have to be shipped.
Tomatoes are relatively easy to grow and unless you are a nut like me, four or five plants will produce enough tomatoes for a normal-sized family.
The tomato, Lycopersicum esculentum, is a member of the nightshade family, tomatoes probably originated in South America. After migrating to Europe when the first explorers returned they were considered poisonous and grown only as ornamentals.
Thomas Jefferson was one of the first Americans to recognize its culinary potential. From that humble origin, each American now consumes an average of almost 90 pounds of tomatoes and tomato products per year.
The tomato plant itself is not a vegetable, but in reality a fruit. In 1893 the U.S. Supreme Court declared the tomato was a vegetable. The ruling didn’t change the taste nor the pure joy of cultivating it, even at $64 a pop.
(Bill Duncan can be reached by writing to P.O. Box 812, Roseburg, OR 97470, or via e-mail at elderstatesmansblog@yahoo.com)