Three New Tomato Converts

[Mudman]

This weekend I made BLTs for lunch and my kids all said, "No 'T' for me." They are all anti-tomato. They all tried Sungolds out of the garden this year and all three of them spit them out in the yard. So I decide that if they were going to have lunch they would have to try a bite of a BLT, with the tomato. They grunted and groaned, took their bites and after a bit of silence, all three of them asked for tomato on their BLT! And they all ate and loved it! Another victory for me.

[Zana]

WTG! The tomato gods must have been sitting over their shoulders prodding them to try it. They won't regret it either....BLT are manna from heaven!

[delltraveller]

We're waiting with baited breath---which tomato variety was it?

[Tania]

Mike,

This is so wonderful to get your kids hooked up on homegrown tomatoes! My first son is pretty hooked by now, he even writes 'heirloom tomatoes' in the Hobbies section of his resume, along with 'rock climbing'. He is 22. The second son still claims he is 'allergic to these red things', but he consumes as many Sungold or Sunsugar tomatoes as he can get access to .

Yes, please tell us what was the tomato that did the magic!

[Full Moon]

which tomato variety was it?

I am wondering the exact same thing

[kath]

Love this story, Mudman- happy for your kids that they've learned that they can change their minds about foods they think they don't like, and happy to hear that there are still parents around who "force" kids to take a bite of a different food now & then.

[Mudman]

Oh sorry, I forgot. I had a pink F3 and a Cherokee Purple on the cutting board and my oldest son looked at the CP and said "don't put that one on mine, it looks gross." I put Cherokee on all of them. Hehe.

[mysidx]

It's funny how kids change their minds once they try it, or if something they think they wouldn't like is slipped into a dish and soon follows "Can you make that again"?.

[Ken4230]

Our youngest girl made me very cautious about "forcing" young children to eat anything. After a good five min. of tears and protest, the first bite of steamed broccoli went down. Asking her to eat a second bite was a major mistake. There is no way someone that small can throw up that much. She had to have had help from someone.

She loves the stuff now, along with any other veggie she can grill or fry.

[dice]

As a child, I would sit at a table all evening rather than eat something
that I did not like. Then I discovered pepper (if you cannot actually
taste the food not on the approved list, and you do not bother to chew
it, it goes down easy, especially chased with some milk).

The only exception that I remember was macaroni-and-cheese.
No amount of pepper would fix that.

[Zana]

Originally Posted by dice

As a child, I would sit at a table all evening rather than eat something
that I did not like. Then I discovered pepper (if you cannot actually
taste the food not on the approved list, and you do not bother to chew
it, it goes down easy, especially chased with some milk).

The only exception that I remember was macaroni-and-cheese.
No amount of pepper would fix that.

I'm with you on those methods of avoiding eating the food. Loads of pepper hide a multitude of stuff I didn't like.

Things changed when we got a black lab (aka canine hoover!). Not sure if my older bro or I came up with the idea of sneaking unwanted food under the table to the dog. That dog ate everything but salad! And we ate salad...so it worked beautifully until the younger sibs tried to follow suit and were not quite so clandestine in their movements. Sighhhhh....

[salix]

I could hold a piece of liver in my mouth until it dissolved and trickled downwards - but I wouldn't chew or swallow it! I like it now...

Mudman,

I'm impressed! Your raising three kids and a garden at the same time. I also raised three kids and a garden, but not at the same time. There are only so many hours in a day and I could never find the extra hours to grow a garden between ball games and school activities.

Our daughter was the picky eater. I love southern fried liver with onions and brown gravy. Our daughter would somehow hide it in her mouth and continue eating. I finally realized what was going on when I visited the toilet after her. She had forgot to flush the liver. She is now forty six years old and will not eat liver. If she ever stops asking when the first spring tomatoes will be ripe, I may stop gardening.

Ted

[Mudman]

Originally Posted by tedln

Mudman,

I'm impressed! Your raising three kids and a garden at the same time. I also raised three kids and a garden, but not at the same time. There are only so many hours in a day and I could never find the extra hours to grow a garden between ball games and school activities.

Ted

I teach and our kids don't play any summer sports, so I have time in the summer. Winter is another story as we are a hockey family. The kids also all started thier own 4 x 4 ft. gardens last year so they are out there quite a bit too.

[Elizabeth]

My daughter is terribly picky - we tried when she was little to convince her to eat new things, but she won the battle. She must have been all of 3 or 4 years old when we came up with the rule that she had to have one bite of the main dish on the table (then she could have PB&J or whatever if she didn't like it) or go to bed without dinner. After the first night when she knew we meant business she would walk to the table, see what was on it and silently walk to bed. No crying, no whining, just (quite mature) resignation. She would wolf down seconds for breakfast, but after a week or two she was losing too much weight and we caved. LOL

Then and now she won't eat anything creamy - no ice cream, yogurt, sour cream, or milk. No soup, no to most sauces and glazes.

I swear that kid lived on PB&J, refried beans, apples, carrots, and tuna on crackers for years. She's 17 now and her fave thing to make herself? Asian stir fry with chicken - bok choy, celery, onions, carrots, cabbage and the whole shebang. She eats lots of vegetables and fruits now, but nothing too exotic. She loves homemade sprouts.

She's healthy - she's only had a course of antibiotics twice in her life. Avoiding most sauces, most sweets and most meats (her choice) probably helped counter the fairly unvaried diet when she was younger. She would rather have a turkey sandwich than a hamburger, but don't get between her and her bacon!

She won't touch a fresh tomato with a 10 foot pole but loves tomato based pasta sauce and salsa, and funnily enough, pico de gallo on Mexican food.

While I can't convince her to eat fresh tomatoes out of the garden she is anxiously awaiting the ripening of the melons and she scarfs down the strawberries right off the plant. I take what I can get...and who knows, maybe by the time she is 20 she will try a fresh tomato on a BLT sandwich (no mayo!) LOL I think ice cream is on her forever no way list though...weird child.