Our tomatoes didn’t do well this summer, probably due to a combination of too much rain and too little sun. Or maybe it was just an off year. At any rate, I needed a couple for a salad and we went to the local farmers’ market for them and any other produce that looked promising. The farm stand owner recommended the variety pictured above, one we had never heard of, seen or tasted. The tomato had all sorts of folds, and slices looked unusual to say the least. Nonetheless, the taste was excellent.
I reflected on the perfectly proportioned,perfectly smooth skinned, perfectly bland tomatoes on sale in our supermarket year around. As a culture we seem to prefer standardized tomatoes year round rather than quirky short lived ones available only in their natural season. So we have sacrificed taste for availability.
Quirky in general seems to be an undervalued trait at the moment in the United States. Kids who used to be seen as odd are now diagnosed and treated. Big nosed kids(I among them) now plead for plastic surgery so they can have “normal” noses. Small busted girls want implants while large busted ones seek reductions. Apparently there is a perfect size there too.
But looking at and then tasting this wonderful tomato I am reminded of what we lose any time we decide that vegetables, fruit and people need to all conform to a very narrow standard. Here’s to variety in all things.
Saved By Words 
I always try to grow tomatoes but I am not lucky enough to see them bear fruits.
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Home grown ‘quirky looking’ tomatoes are the most delicious of them all! I love those kind of tomatoes and don’t have them often enough. Also, I know we live on different coasts, but our summer was extremely raining as well! I don’t know what that means for our fall, but I would welcome a little sunshine in the coming months before winter!
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If you are in Philly still we are on the same coasts. I am in Connecticut.
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Okay yes you are right! I don’t know why for some reason I thought you were in Oregon, but now that I reflect, you grew up there right?
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Yes. I lived in Oregon for 50 years, but I was born in Brooklyn and have always felt like an Easterner.
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Ok – I’m off to the plant barn for some heirloom varieties to plant up! But I’ll still have my cherry toms. The baby loves going out and plucking them straight off the plant & eating them.
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I used to have sugar snap peas by the front door to delight the neighborhood children who would eat them as they came over to visit.
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Nom nom… I’d eat them all myself
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Too true.
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Your words are so appreciated from one who does not conform to standard.
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I am glad.
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Here, here to quirkiness & uniqueness! Soo much more interesting, tasty & the way God created them to be! 😀
Jennifer
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Absolutely!
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