Heirloom tomato

 

Two weeks ago I bought a few tomatoes from the farmers market that sets up 1/2 block from here directly across from me, on the next street west toward the mountains in the front yard of the one-time school. 

The tomatoes were ordinary.

I still have one in the refrigerator getting all wrinkly and out of it from being so cold but the white flies were driving me nuts. I don't like it. Flavorless. From a farm. You don't expect that.

Come on!

So the next Sunday I passed and ordered from Whole Foods instead who deliver directly to my front door. 

They delivered everything, $200.00 worth, but they left off the tomatoes. 

What a bummer!

All that stuff and no tomatoes. The closest I come to them is two cans of V-8 juice. 

So now I go dragging back to the farmer's market. It is a strange tiny thing. Only two tents to buy tomatoes. The people there all remember me from two weeks ago, and they are warm and welcoming as ever. 

And I joke. 

Two million dollars is kind of lot for four tomatoes, but I love them so.

Always eager to join a joke, "I know, right. Costs are exorbitant. " 

Oh man, this tomato is good. I waited all year for a tomato like this.

You see, Foreign Readers, in the United States our supremely efficient farm mass production uses a good solidly even-producing determinative type tomato that all grow at the same rate and all fully mature on the vine at the same time, the entire crop all at once, for good even solid one-time harvesting purposes. Boom, the entire crop harvested instantly. And these tomatoes are also chosen for their sturdiness in transportation and their reliability in storage. Attention to their flavor ... not so much. Flavor is less of a value in this marketing scheme compared with everything else, so taste suffers. 

Taste suffers until the summer when thousands of independent farmers and gardeners bring in the results of their own production and it is a marvel to behold, thousands of tomato varieties popping up all over the place and they all taste better than the high-production determinative types. 

In my area the same thing holds true for Palisade peaches. Today there was no-one in front of me and I moved through quickly but I turned and the line behind me grew as every new person to enter lined up for the peaches. "Look at your line." 

     "Yeah, I know." 

"We waited all year for these." 

The whole line of people were listening to us. Patiently waiting. It's all quite incredible. They were watching the guy with two canes being served. The entire line of people agreed. They would wait for as long as it took. Patiently on Sunday morning. Yes, we had waited all year for these peaches. $2 million dollars per peach isn't so bad when you've been waiting all year.