cbsnews video heirloom tomatoes

[Fusion_power]

http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7423474n

Enjoy!

DarJones

[remy]

Excellent video! Thanks for sharing.
Remy

[Rockporter]

I enjoyed it alot, I grew up in California and my fondest memory is the Beefsteak grandma pulled off the vine in Modesto. The best and I have never had the same since.

[gixxerific]

Great video thanks

[feldon30]

That's a good video.

I thought the researcher in the lab was funny. She was totally oblivious to how tasteless grocery store tomatoes are as she waxed poetic about the favor that has been done to the American consumer by keeping tomatoes cheap.

[Redbaron]

Originally Posted by feldon30

That's a good video.

I thought the researcher in the lab was funny. She was totally oblivious to how tasteless grocery store tomatoes are as she waxed poetic about the favor that has been done to the American consumer by keeping tomatoes cheap.

Agree 100% but I hated that they were also oblivious to the fact that flavor is more than sweetness. It really is nutrition too. That researcher may be clueless about how they destroyed flavor, but she should have known better how the nutritional qualities were destroyed along with it.

In the end, it is still food. I personally think it borders on criminal what they have done to the tomato. How are you supposed to eat a balanced diet with lots of healthy veggies when the veggies you buy at the grocery are often so bad they taste like soggy cardboard and have just barely better nutrition than soggy cardboard too?

That can be applied to many other foods too. For example:

Look at factory farmed eggs compared to pastured eggs.

eggs laid by hens foraging on pasture have shown:
1/3 less cholesterol
1/4 less saturated fat
2/3 more vitamin A
2 times more omega-3 fatty acids
3 times more vitamin E
7 times more beta carotene

Are we really getting a bargain with these crappy foods at the store? I don't think so. You get what you pay for.

[zeroma]

Thanks for sharing the video!

Did any of you happen to catch the name of the yummy looking "Best of Show" yellow tomato at the end of it?

I was sadly surprised that grocery store tomato hybrids have no real heirloom tomato genes left at all.

[pinklady5]

I googled it and found the list of winners for 2012
http://www.kj.com/assets/client/File...ompWinners.pdf

[shelleybean]

Thank you for sharing. Quite interesting!

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by pinklady5

I googled it and found the list of winners for 2012
http://www.kj.com/assets/client/File...ompWinners.pdf

I like the same top three cherry tomatoes, but there are others I like as well.

I'm ambivalent about some selections in other categories, but I am NOT ambilvalent about the variety Shah, since it's not a legitimate variety. it was declared extinct many many decades ago.

You can go to the Legacy Forum to read about Shah and see that what Will Weaver reintroduced as Shah was not. He probably used White Potato Leaf.

Then you can read Craig L's ( nctomatoman) comments about Shah since he has the old catalog where it was introduced and described.

Yes, I do admit that I have been interested in the histories of tomato varieties for many many years.

[Deborah]

I didn't know that about eggs. Is pastured the same thing as cage free?

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by Deborah

I didn't know that about eggs. Is pastured the same thing as cage free?

In my area they would be called free range chickens which are allowed to forage what they want to but are usally given lots of room to forage and still fenced in in some manner so they don't escape.

Some will change the foraging area when it becomes obvious that the chickens have pretty much foraged all they can in a given area.

There are two folks on my rural road who raise such chickens and I pay about $3/dozen for eggs that are of all different colors b'c they raise what are called heirloom chicken breeds.

Those yokes are the color of gold and the taste is fantastic and I know they're fresh and haven't been sitting in a cooler at a store despite the expiration date on the carton.

[Fusion_power]

Free range eggs are from hens that are allowed to range outdoors in the yard, pasture, etc. They eat grass, tomatoes, insects, and whatever else they can catch. Is this a cautionary tale for a tomato grower? Yep!

Commercial eggs are produced in one of two ways. Either by putting thousands of chickens in a large building and feeding them with commercial feed or by putting them in small cages in a large building typically with 5 hens in a cage and feeding them commercial feed. Cage free just means they were not produced in cages.

DarJones

[Redbaron]

Originally Posted by Deborah

I didn't know that about eggs. Is pastured the same thing as cage free?

Not usually. Most commercial "cage free" have 20,000+ hens in a warehouse like building. It is just slightly better than battery cages. Still is inhumane and makes eggs taste like crap.

Even some commercial so called "free range" really are not. Certain chicken ranchers have figured out loopholes in the law and provide a tiny "yard" like 10 feet wide the length of the warehouse, but still basically raise the hens warehouse style. That's not nearly enough yard for 20,000 plus birds.

There are several ways to "pasture" chickens. It really depends on the scale. Whether it is commercial scale at 20,000 birds or small scale with 10, the common factor is that the birds are moved to new pasture every 3 days or less. (every day is best)

Regular free range properly done simply has chickens roaming a certain area all the time. Hopefully the area is large enough. That would depend on the ethics of the person or company raising them.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pastured_poultry
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Managed...tional_grazing

Whether properly free range or pastured, the eggs are absolutely undeniably fantastically unbelievably superior in flavor, color and nutrition. Just like with Wall Mart Tomatoes versus a good real heritage tomato. There really is no comparison.

[feldon30]

Some people bring a Brix meter to tomato tastings. I bring my tongue.