reply to post by HIWATT
Yeah it's amazing how little seeds can grow so big. I was thinning tomato plants at something like a dozen for square foot. I put down humanure
compost and put down the little seedlings and the plants just exploded in growth -- I set them a foot and half apart approximately. There's some
overlap but then I can double up on caging somewhat.
So now I'm harvesting about a dozen tomatoes a day. I eat most of them -- there's some MAOI action on tomatoes. So they should naturally increase
serotonin along with various other things not mentionable on ATS.
Also the lycopene from the red antioxidant kills cancer, etc.
Wow I had no idea this
was so contentious
Fruit or vegetable? Botanically, a tomato is a fruit: the ovary, together with its seeds, of a flowering plant. However, the tomato has a much
lower sugar content than other edible fruits, and is therefore not as sweet. Typically served as part of a salad or main course of a meal, rather than
at dessert, it is considered a vegetable for most culinary uses. One exception is that tomatoes are treated as a fruit in home canning practices: they
are acidic enough to be processed in a water bath rather than a pressure cooker as vegetables would require. Tomatoes are not the only food source
with this ambiguity: avocadoes, eggplants, cucumbers, and squashes of all kinds (such as zucchini and pumpkins) are all botanically fruits, yet cooked
as vegetables. This dispute has led to legal speculation in the United States. In 1887, U.S. tariff laws that imposed a duty on vegetables, but not
on fruits, caused the tomato's status to become a matter of legal importance. The U.S. Supreme Court settled this controversy on May 10, 1893, by
declaring that the tomato is a vegetable, based on the popular definition that classifies vegetables by use, that they are generally served with
dinner and not dessert (Nix v. Hedden (149 U.S. 304)).[60] The holding of this case applies only to the interpretation of the Tariff Act of March 3,
1883, and the court did not purport to reclassify the tomato for botanical or other purposes. Tomatoes have been designated the state vegetable of
New Jersey. Arkansas took both sides by declaring the "South Arkansas Vine Ripe Pink Tomato" to be both the state fruit and the state vegetable in the
same law, citing both its culinary and botanical classifications. In 2009, the state of Ohio passed a law making the tomato the state's official
fruit. Tomato juice has been the official beverage of Ohio since 1965. A.W. Livingston, of Reynoldsburg, Ohio, played a large part in popularizing the
tomato in the late 19th century; his efforts are commemorated in Reynoldsburg with an annual Tomato Festival.
So I have other "fruits" that I thought were vegetables -- squash and cucumbers.
Yeah garden fresh tomatoes are nothing compared to refrigerated tomatoes.
I guess the variety used to refrigerate tomatoes makes them extra bland.
My tomatoes are also "meaty" -- full of water but not juicy or runny -- not extra hard -- slightly tangy flavor. Maybe we have the same variety. I
would have to check if I still have the seed packet. I pick them at "stage 2" when they're red-orange and maybe a bit of green. So otherwise they
can crack from the water intake breaking the fragile red skin.
Essentially I made a huge deer fence from European invasive buckthorn trees -- so that was free fencing -- but the squirrels are getting some of the
tomatoes close to the ground. I don't have enough cages so I just use various sticks or sunflower plants or corn plants, etc. to prop up the
sprawling tomatoes.
I lost count at 12 dozen tomatoes - my guess is maybe twice that but there's so many I just stopped counting. I gave my sister a big bag of over a
dozen tomatoes and then I looked it up -- an organic tomato was selling for $4!! I think the price must be down from that now but last time I was at
the co-op I was amazed at the price of the pea sprouts, green beans and various other crops I harvest regularly.
I like the tomatoes fresh and eating half a dozen a day is a full on tomato experience. I posted this reply since I happened to be eating tomatoes
when I read it.
A small preliminary study on healthy men and women has shown that the lycopene from orange- and tangerine-colored tomatoes may actually be better
absorbed than the lycopene from red tomatoes. That's because the lycopene in deep red tomatoes is mostly trans-lycopene, and the lycopene in
orange/tangerine tomatoes is mostly tetra-cis-lycopene. In a recent study, this tetra-cis form of lycopene turned out to be more efficiently absorbed
by the study participants. While more research is needed in this area, we're encouraged to find that tomatoes may not have to be deep red in order for
us to get great lycopene-related benefits.
More tomato secrets
One of these phytonutrients is a glycoside called esculeoside A; another is flavonoid called chalconaringenin; and yet another is a fatty-acid
type molecule called 9-oxo-octadecadienoic acid. As our knowledge of unique tomato phytonutrients expands, we are likely to learn more about the
unique role played by tomatoes in support of heart health.
55% increase in lycopene by cooking low heat with fat for long time....
Corn oil was added to both sauces as well. But the sauce designed to produce lycopene in the bent molecular forms was subjected to a second round
of heating at 260 degrees Fahrenheit for 40 minutes. The resulting sauce contained nine times more cis-isomers than the regularly processed sauce.
Twelve people participated in a study of the sauces, and all ate both kinds of sauce over the course of the study. After each meal, researchers took
samples of participants’ blood seven times during the following 9 1/2 hours to measure lycopene levels. The scientists used a special testing method
to analyze lycopene levels in the blood associated only with the tomato sauce meal, avoiding any other possible sources of those compounds in the
bloodstream. Research participants had a 55 percent increase in total lycopene absorption after eating the specially processed sauce when compared to
their lycopene blood levels after eating the regular sauce. This finding reinforced the expectation that the bent forms of lycopene are more easily
absorbed into human blood, Schwartz said.
O.K. I guess I'll break down to make an actual sauce.
edit on 6-9-2012 by fulllotusqigong because: (no reason given)