Heirlooms.....yum.
Posted on 06/08/2008 3:49:11 AM PDT by Pharmboy
ALBUQUERQUE (AP) — Salmonella food poisoning first linked to uncooked tomatoes has spread to 16 states, federal health officials said Saturday.
Investigations by the health departments of Texas and New Mexico and the federal Indian Health Service have tied 56 cases in Texas and 55 in New Mexico to raw, uncooked tomatoes.
“We’re seeing a steady increase,” said Deborah Busemeyer, the communications director for the New Mexico Department of Health.
An additional 50 people have been sickened by the same salmonella infection in Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Oklahoma, Oregon, Utah, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported.
Investigators are trying to determine if raw tomatoes are also responsible for the illnesses in those states, said Arleen Porcell, a spokeswoman for the C.D.C.
The source of the tomatoes responsible for the illnesses has not been determined.
At least 23 people have been hospitalized, and no deaths have been reported, Ms. Porcell said.
The rarity of the salmonella strain and the number of illnesses “suggest that implicated tomatoes are distributed throughout the country,” she said.
Cherry tomatoes, grape tomatoes, tomatoes sold with the vine still attached and homegrown tomatoes are likely not the source of the outbreak, Ms. Busemeyer said.
Salmonella, snip...usually is transmitted to humans who eat food contaminated with animal feces.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Wow! Thanks for the ping. My tomatoes have really gone through a growth spurt the last couple of days, with temperatures here in the mid to high 90’s. Growing our own is making more and more sense every day.
Hmmm. Sounds like somebody is misusing a cheap (and dangerous) natural fertilizer used many years ago: manure tea. With the cost of commercial fertilizers skyrocketing and enviro-wackos howling about chemical fertilizers, many have gone back to spraying and watering with manure tea. It’s a real bad idea though for using it on stuff you eat.
Tell her she did a nice job on that picture. Reminds me of times past...
Yeah, right.
Use potassium and ammonium nitrate fertilizer.
It's very good for roses.
I have raised tomato plants, alternating them with Epsom salts and no Epsom Salts. A farmer neighbor was trying to convince me that the Epsom Salts made tomatoes grow bigger.
Without fail, the salted plants had 2-3 times the output of the others. Everything else about their care was identical.
Epsom salts is Magnesium sulfate.
Plants need magnesium to make chlorophyll.
Just like we need iron in our blood to make hemoglobin, magnesium is the central atom in chlorophyll.
Heirlooms.....yum.
You say ‘tomayto’,
I say ‘tomahto’-
....
Cripes, let’s go get some Kaopectate!
We were talking about this yesterday, my uncle got it in Texas. They’re pretty sure that they came from Mexico.
We were also talking about a big company in Arizona who can’t get enough workers and are exporting to Mexico and then re-importing to the US but I think it is too early for Arizona to have tomatoes.
Less than 2 seconds apart....:)
Whole Foods is HQ in TX.... they re-called their Roma and “large field grown” tomatoes.
http://www.bizjournals.com/pittsburgh/stories/2008/06/02/daily42.html
They basically couldn’t remember the last time they got sick.
&&
Too many bong hits keeps you from remembering any number of important things....
What’s a six letter word for polluted produce - Mexico.
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Yup. I studiously avoid buying any foodstuffs from there or any other Thirld World country.
No time for that...just fry ‘em and eat ‘em. Most times there are much fewer that make it to the table than there were to begin with!
I do like a little horseradish with them occasionally, but mostly just plain old cornmeal, salt and pepper!
...husband asked if I’d been washing them....
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I have been washing — scrubbing, where possible — my produce for years. Over the last year, or so, because of a tip from a FReeper, I soak produce that will be consumed raw in bleach water.
I am almost never sick.
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