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To: Alouette
I was in Whole Foods yesterday, they were selling heirloom tomatoes for $5.99/lb that I grow in my backyard FOR FREE. (Well, not for free free, the seedlings cost $2.99 at Home Depot)

That's one of those places where you have to weigh the relative value of your time, effort and skill. I have a brown thumb and a yard made mostly of red clay, and we're in the middle of a drought. For me to try to grow 'maters would most likely be futile, not at all fun, and pretty costly.

That said, the same tomatoes are probably at the DeKalb Farmer's Market for half the price. Not so well screened to be pretty, so you have to take more be more selective, but that's another trade-off. Either way, from Whole Foods (or Whole Paycheck, as it's sometimes called) or the farmer's market, or your own garden, better something with real flavor than the rubbery things on the supermarket aisles.

I admit I'm not a big tomato fan -- where this really struck me is in apples. Not to be blunt, but supermarket apples suck. Red Delicious and Golden Delicious apples are the most misnamed produce ever. Granny Smiths have a little more tartness, a little bit of flavor, but the same Turtle Wax feel and the texture of sawdust.

The bottled "apple juice" on the shelf is little more than wee-colored sugar water. Oh, it's sweet and it's nutritious, and it's fine for kindergartners, but come one. I want some flavor, already.

But when you find a roadside stand in the Smokies or the Blue Ridge, in North Georgia, the Carolinas, or Tennessee, just damn. Apples no bigger than a tennis ball. Their color is all freckled and mottled. You'll want to feel them over and look for bruises or worm holes. But when you take a bite, WOW. This is what an apple tastes like. An apple that wasn't bred to survive two weeks in a box car to look pretty on a store shelf. This was something bred to be eaten.

While I'm at that stand, I'll almost always pick up a gallon (at least) of the murky, cloudy cider, a jar of Vidalia onion relish, and a bag of boiled peanuts. I can't turn down the boiled peanuts. And they're so easy to make, every stand has them.

30 posted on 08/30/2007 6:57:37 PM PDT by ReignOfError
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To: ReignOfError
That's one of those places where you have to weigh the relative value of your time, effort and skill.

I planted tomatoes this year for the first time. I did not have a CLUE what I was doing. I bought seven different seedlings at Home Depot and stuck 'em in the ground.

The results have been amazing, and delicious.

32 posted on 08/30/2007 7:02:58 PM PDT by Alouette (Vicious Babushka)
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To: ReignOfError; Alouette
I am lucky enough to have a farmer's market a block away from my apartment (in the parking lot of a Firehouse no less). Bought some fresh white eggplant, white corn and heirloom tomatoes for $7.00. The same quantity would have cost me $12 at Whole Foods.

Nevertheless, Whole Foods deserves kudos for labeling where their meat, seafood and produce come from and for carrying LOCAL produce in season. They are, for example, the only national chain that has gulf shrimp on a regular basis. The same can't be said for the larger chains, which seem to only carry "dirty water" shrimp from 'nam and Indonesia.

39 posted on 08/30/2007 7:36:53 PM PDT by Clemenza (Rudy Giuliani, like Pesto and Seattle, belongs in the scrap heap of '90s Culture)
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