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It's misleading to shout tomatoes are the culprit - I suspicion it should be "tomatoes contaminated by..."

A few months ago it was spinach from California...due to contamination from human waste. If you've ever seen the many acred fields of crops in Calif. and other states, operated by big ag, you can understand that field workers, even though there are porta-potties available, don't bother the walk all the way back to them - for reasons like: it's a long walk in the sweltering heat when you're bone tired; it's time out of picking time and they get paid by amount picked; they just don't give a sh*t...in their home country, human waste is used as fertilizer anyway.

The safest solution is to grow your own veggies and/or buy from small, local farms/farmers markets.

I've got patio tomatoes already setting on and have Beefsteaks, Beefmasters and Early girls that I'm transplanting today - some upside down in hanging baskets, other in half-barrel tubs.

I'm an great-granny so it is too much for me to maintain a ground level garden. The tubs are just the right height to work easily, plus, no need for rototilling come spring.

The upside down hanging plants - I'm doing tomatoes and cukes - are also at perfect height. I hang them out of the bottom of bucket-size tubs - the plants grow down with the fruit (tomatoes and cukes, by the way, are technically fruits, not vegetables) hangs down for easy picking and no rot from contact with the ground.)

Tomatoes are a super health-giving plant - however, the skin should not be eaten. When warmed, as it is when in the body, the skin is plastic-like and strong - and has a proclivity to plaster itself to the insides of your intestines, where it can remain for years while collecting debree underneath. Not a good scenario.

I dunk my tomatoes into boiling water for about 7-10 seconds and then plunge them into very cold water. The skin just slides off. My family loves the traditional Irish breakfast that includes Fried RED tomatoes. In that case, I don't preskin. I slice thick and fry in butter or half butter/oo. The heat from cooking renders the skin easily taken off. (A tiny dab of butter and a sprinkling of sugar - nummy..)

Tomatoes are a super health-giving plant - however, the skin should not be eaten. When warmed, as it is when in the body, the skin is plastic-like and strong - and has a proclivity to plaster itself to the insides of your intestines, where it can remain for years while collecting debree underneath. Not a good scenario.

I'd not thought about this before, maine-iac7: But it makes sense. Thanks.

When we lived in NJ, I did some square-foot gardening, and I really enjoyed that! We haven't bothered with a garden here in MA, because the ground is just too rocky, and the growing season too short, to have to fool with. We're fixing to move back to MS, though, and I can't wait to have a garden again. We'll do some square-foot beds, but put them slightly below waist high, so we don't have to do so much bending down, cause we're getting older every day, and want to protect our backs and knees! LOL!

I like those hanging down tomato plants, though. I'd love to have a couple of those, and some pepper plants done the same way, on a patio, or deck.