They also taste way better than store-bought ones.
Also one of the easier garden vegetables (yes, vegetable, fight me) to plant. Great for beginners.
Serious question: do people on team fruit also call other “culinary vegetables” fruits, such as cucumbers, zucchini, corn, eggplants, bell peppers, green beans, etc.?
Fruits come from the flowering part of the plant and contain seeds, whereas vegetables are other parts of the plant (leaves, stems, roots, bulbs). They’re fruit.
They say knowledge is knowing that tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is knowing not to put it in a fruit salad.
Honestly, with my raised beds, between compost, seeds and fertilizer I probably lose money compared to buying tomatoes from the store. Home grown garden tomatoes are 10x better quality than grocery store tomatoes.
Honestly, with my raised beds, between compost, seeds and fertilizer I probably lose money compared to buying tomatoes from the store. Home grown garden tomatoes are 10x better quality than grocery store tomatoes.
Bro I been growing edamame. Holy fucking shit. You’ll fucking cum.
yeah? our light is very poor in our back garden. the only thing that thrives, that I’ve found, is gerkins, so thats what we grow. tiny cucumbers, and we pickle them.
we tried regular peas and beans, and it was OK, but there was so little fruit at one time we became completely confused as to how anyone could have enough for a whole serving at any one time.
Whats your light situation like with the edamame? do you just boil/salt them and eat them like you would in a japanese restaurant?
And if ever there is a day you can’t buy tomatoes for whatever reason, you will have them.
we actually switched to gerkins. so, if theres ever a day where we can’t buy pickels, we’d have them, but not the pickling ingredients as we can’t grow our own vinegar
You can! You just need a vinegar mother! I’ve not done it myself, but the way I understand it you can transfer the mother once the vinegar is to your liking, then on to the next one.
When gardens are being raided due to mass starvation, people will go to your house and say, “Pickles, GROSS!” They will move on and your house will be spared.
I live in Ireland, we don’t pay for water (or even waste water out like they do in Germany), but the rain has been non-stop this year with the gulf stream. I’ve also just intalled a water butt out of a 500l repurposed whiskey barrel (again, Ireland) so that also helps with not having to use the hose (they call it the hose pipe)
Gardening is a hobby. You don’t do it to get cheap fruits and veggies.
The results speak for themselves though, and you absolutely cannot beat a tomato right off the vine.
Store bought tomatoes seem to taste more fucking bland every year. Like I have to spend $6 per small bag to get “gourmet” tomatoes to even taste like a tomato. It’s actually infuriating. I grow tomatoes now literally not to save money but just because grocery store tomatoes (at least in my area) are trash.
Store tomatoes are not tomatoes. Unless you’re buying somewhere legit and expensive af, the tomatoes you see in stores are picked green and gassed to turn red. They are dog shit. Probably worse, actually. Seek out local farms near you and get the good shit (and often cheaper than places like whole foods).
Tomatoes are one thing I never buy in a store, except sauce/canned tomatoes, as those products are derived from ripe tomatoes.
We had 1/2 acre and planted a bunch of things, ate for free. Water was from a well so not even a water bill. Best tasting veg ever. Potatoes though, those are hard labour.
Can you grow all year round where you are? If I had half an acre where I live I think half of my growing area would have to be a greenhouse.
The best we can do is learn and inform, while being empathetic and understanding.
For those who can garden, great!
For those who can’t, might consider joining a community garden or help start one.
This is also not possible for everyone, but from my own experience, community garden communities do free lessons to help and teach new people.
Coming together around a common good, that is what we can do.
For real though, you don’t plant your own tomatoes to save money, you plant your own tomatoes because your crop is going to taste so good that you’ll be chasing that flavor any time you’re stuck buying them from the store. Just so far beyond storebought.
It’s the one crop I keep coming back to every year - the effort is worth it.
It’s the same in that most fruits and vegetables you can buy at the store have been bred for quantity and shipping. Home gardeners can grow varieties that are bred for flavor. So my Nebraska Wedding Tomatoes may not survive a trip across the country with UPS, but they taste amazing. And my Double Gold raspberries don’t produce bushels, but they’re the best I’ve ever eaten. I do think I’m probably saving money growing garlic. Very low maintenance plant, and I grow enough to save what I need to plant for the next year. So some crops are pretty cost effective, but some are really for the flavor.
Not all, but most. I don’t notice much of a difference with peppers or carrots, but strawberries especially are incredible when grown from a garden and pretty tasteless when bought from a store. Tomatoes don’t have quite as significant of a difference, but they’re still much better. I don’t think I’ve ever gotten fresh beets from anywhere but a farmer’s market or my garden, so I’m not sure about them.
That’s definitely from someone who never tasted a home grown tomatoe or waters theirs a lot too often, you can buy tomatoes but they taste like literal shit in comparison! ;)
Also you can leave them on the plant a lot longer than they last in the fridge.
So you save a lot more, since you aren’t buying tomatoes every week. You just pick them as you need them.
Don’t put tomatoes in the fridge, if possible. Put them in the sun, if they need to ripen more, otherwise put them somewhere dark and cool, but not cold.
Basically, store them like potatoes. 50-55F is ideal. They can stay for weeks like that.
(This is all said with the understanding that the tomatoes are whole/uncut. Once they’re chopped up, the fridge is the best option, but they’re only good for a few days)
sauce: me, veg farmer
As a vegetable farmer I disagree. Tomatoes do not store well like potatoes, please throw them in your fridge.
Or in other words in the fridge if you live in a “modern” house because there won’t be any better place?
I think the issue is they taste of nothing, and the flesh is all this mealy mush texture. People have a surprisingly low standard of what the accept as a tomato
