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Tomato nostalgia as I relive my Croatian island childhood

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Re: Tomato nostalgia as I relive my Croatian island childhood

#171

Post by swiftcoder »

MichaelRo wrote: post #12
rini17 wrote: post #2

Oh my. Everyone who cares about tomatoes grows their own, supermarkets are for the rest. They are not demanding and will grow anywhere there's sun, including in pot on balcony.

>> They are not demanding I have to disagree on this one. They are prone to a myriad of diseases, mainly fungus: Phytophthora infenstans, Fulvia fulva, Botrytis cinerea, Mosaic Virus, Stolbur disease, and if you don't spray them with the right substances you'll lose a substantial part if not the whole crop, oftentimes lose it even if you spray them. Other than that I agree that home grown tomatoes are better. Of cour…

I think maybe this is only a big problem in climates that are on the cold side for tomatoes. The only problem I've had the last few years is tomato blight during one particularly rainy spring, and growing the tomatoes up a trellis and cutting away the excess lower leaves has been sufficient to control it.

Companion planting aromatics may help control pests as well - I usually plant as many of basil, rosemary, parsley, and cilantro as will take in the vicinity of the tomatoes.

Re: Tomato nostalgia as I relive my Croatian island childhood

#172

Post by locallost »

throwaway2037 wrote: post #154
apavlinovic wrote: post #30

I am Croatian, and I know exactly what the article is referring to. So much that we decided to grow our own tomatoes this year. The imported junk we get from Netherlands is abysmal compared to anything grown locally, and the reality is that we want the good stuff for ourselves, not the tourists. We were very lucky to have a great harvest of cherry, monte carlo, and plum tomatoes this year, all of which serve a differ…

Why do tomatoes from Netherlands look so perfect, but taste so bland? I never understand it. I guess that they look perfect because they are grown in a green house, so no pests. Real question: Why do tomatoes from south Europe taste so much better? Is it the sunshine, or the soil? Or is the gene stock of the tomatoes? Or... everything?

It's the sun, which the tomatoes need. Additionally my guess is most of the tomatoes in the Netherlands are grown in greenhouses which are usually coated with UV protection, and the tomatoes do well with UV light.

I have tomatoes myself and this year they haven't tasted that great, and there's been a lot of rain and little sunshine compared to prior years. In the south of Europe you can grow the tomatoes outside although I think these days the commercial ones are also grown in e.g. polytunnels because they can get the products faster to the market.

Re: Tomato nostalgia as I relive my Croatian island childhood

#173

Post by sph »

batushka5 wrote: post #158
apavlinovic wrote: post #30

I am Croatian, and I know exactly what the article is referring to. So much that we decided to grow our own tomatoes this year. The imported junk we get from Netherlands is abysmal compared to anything grown locally, and the reality is that we want the good stuff for ourselves, not the tourists. We were very lucky to have a great harvest of cherry, monte carlo, and plum tomatoes this year, all of which serve a differ…

Netherlands produce really edible tomatos, just your suplier buys D category produce instead of A, which is expensive. I'm surprised that Italy or Spain can't match (maybe because of price) on my supermarket shelf. I don't challenge homegrown tomato - they are superior! But you have to survive winter somehow.

> Netherlands produce really edible tomatos

I love how you use "edible" as a superlative to describe food. Yes, Dutch tomatoes are very edible indeed.

But where I can get some tasty and flavourful tomatoes?

Re: Tomato nostalgia as I relive my Croatian island childhood

#174

Post by locallost »

firebaze wrote: post #162
batushka5 wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Netherlands produce really edible tomatos, just your suplier buys D category produce instead of A, which is expensive. I'm surprised that Italy or Spain can't match (maybe because of price) on my supermarket shelf. I don't challenge homegrown tomato - they are superior! But you have to survive winter somehow.

Please forgive me to disagree wholeheartedly and completely. After several years of "let's check again if tomatoes from Netherlands are still bad" I have completely stopped buying them altogether. They look great, smell good, and taste absolutely bland. Price does not make any distinction whatsoever, from my point of view. Or we only get the "cheap" stuff in all our shops here if the tomatoes are from Netherlands. An…

One note about the smell is that it could be just the green part where the fruit still is attached to, so it's easy to get deceived. Tomato plants have a strong smell themselves.

Re: Tomato nostalgia as I relive my Croatian island childhood

#175

Post by throwaway03254 »

TrackerFF wrote: post #149
wafflemaker wrote: post #14

I'm Polish expat living in Norway. There are no tomatoes to be had in Norway... Just kidding. I'm actually kind of alright with the small ones (pearl tomatoes), any other don't taste like tomatoes. I believe, that the Norwegian people are so used to blandly tasting vegetables, that the worst and least ripe product parties are send to Norway. But my wife and her family are tomato people. Every time we visit Poland or…

Norwegian here Yeah, that's unfortunately the sad fact of living here, even more so the longer north you go - there's really no such thing as "in-season" veggies. Closest would be potatoes, and maybe some other things at the farmers markets. We're all used to everything pretty much tasting like water. I was 22 years old the first time I tasted "real" tomatoes in southern Europe. What we do have, though, is fresh seaf…

There are lots of vegetables grown in Norway that tastes better than the imported vegetables, and are available in normal grocery shops. The season for each vegetable is short, so you need to get them while they are available.

Re: Tomato nostalgia as I relive my Croatian island childhood

#176

Post by GOONIMMUNE »

haspok wrote: post #145
GOONIMMUNE wrote: post #90

My understanding is that this has less to do with the specific location the tomatoes are grown, and more to do with the distance from the point of consumption they are grown. If the tomatoes have to travel a long distance, they will be picked before ripe so that they are more hardy during transit. Unfortunately this significantly alters the taste for the worse. I don't really live in the U.S. anymore, but I used to p…

Your understanding is not wrong, but it is not what this article is really about. There are lots of kinds of tomatoes, and there is at least one type that grows in the Mediterranean, that the author describes. If you are not familiar with this kind of tomato, you would simply reject it if you saw it: it doesn't look good, it is too large, too mushy, doesn't seem ripe. But then if you accidentally taste it, you realiz…

I will be in (northern) Italy next month, is there a name for this kind of tomato I can look for?

Re: Tomato nostalgia as I relive my Croatian island childhood

#177

Post by brrt »

apavlinovic wrote: post #30

I am Croatian, and I know exactly what the article is referring to. So much that we decided to grow our own tomatoes this year. The imported junk we get from Netherlands is abysmal compared to anything grown locally, and the reality is that we want the good stuff for ourselves, not the tourists. We were very lucky to have a great harvest of cherry, monte carlo, and plum tomatoes this year, all of which serve a differ…

I'm from the Netherlands and

> The imported junk we get from Netherlands is abysmal compared to anything grown locally, and the reality is that we want the good stuff for ourselves, not the tourists.

This hurts, and it's absolutely true.

Makes me wonder why we spend so much in subsidies for the dutch tomato growers, if nobody actually likes eating them.

For what it's worth, I get them in the supermarket, grown in spain, if at all possible.

Re: Tomato nostalgia as I relive my Croatian island childhood

#178

Post by lm28469 »

shiroiushi wrote: post #153
lm28469 wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Why is capitalism failing us here? It can't even bring housing and healthcare for all, tasty tomatoes is way down the list lmao

Capitalism isn't the reason your housing costs so much; that's because of crappy government regulations (i.e. Euclidean zoning) and NIMBYs. Remove the regulations and let landowners do what they want with land and it'll be fixed; that's how it works here in Japan. Conversely, the reason American healthcare is such a disaster is because of really bad regulation. Developed nations have shown that good healthcare system…

The world isn't the USA, yet the housing problem is impacting most of the west

It definitely is more than partially brought by capitalism and what comes with it: greed, speculation, &c.

The flat I'm renting right now in Germany is owned by a company who owns 200k flats, the main shareholder in this company is Black Rock. Now explain to me why my german salary paying a german rent benefits private shareholders in NYC ? Rent doubled in ten years...

Re: Tomato nostalgia as I relive my Croatian island childhood

#180

Post by gorjusborg »

shiroiushi wrote: post #153
lm28469 wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Why is capitalism failing us here? It can't even bring housing and healthcare for all, tasty tomatoes is way down the list lmao

Capitalism isn't the reason your housing costs so much; that's because of crappy government regulations (i.e. Euclidean zoning) and NIMBYs. Remove the regulations and let landowners do what they want with land and it'll be fixed; that's how it works here in Japan. Conversely, the reason American healthcare is such a disaster is because of really bad regulation. Developed nations have shown that good healthcare system…

> '...the reason American healthcare is such a disaster...'

Can you give an example of the sort of regulation making our health systems a disaster?

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