This year I planted San Marzano tomatoes (from seed). They turn perfectly ripe, except the shoulders often remain green. Most of our tomatoes have quit producing, but the San Marzano are still going strong. They are a type of roma tomato, so you can eat them raw, roast them, make sauce, dry them, or any other tomatoey thing you want to do. As with all romas they are not as juicy as the tomatoes we are used to eating, but they’re still very delicious, so it was great to see this article about heirloom varieties.
The article about tomatoes is in the newsletter I received from Seeds From Italy. Actually they were referencing a New York Times article which said that the tomato varieties most often found in supermarkets, have a genetic mutation that originally occurred by chance, but now is bred deliberately. This mutation has only one real advantage: it promotes uniform ripeness throughout the fruit, eliminating “green shoulders.” However, researchers have found that this deliberate uniformity in tomatoes has one big disadvantage. The gene that is disturbed by the mutation plays a huge role in the flavor of tomatoes. Without it, tomatoes are often very bland.
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I hesitate to tell all of you this, but OK here goes. Megg’s cafe is having a new menu tasting. Here’s the announcement I received: