Tomatoes and the fall of empire
On Tuesday, I read an article in a local newspaper that was preparing folks for the price hikes in their grocery bills which will be coming because of the terrible weather in the Eastern states. Shortly after I read that, a friend sent me a link to a post where someone had linked an old government statement about cloud seeding to the current weather patterns and was using it to argue the current storms as evidence that climate change is a hoax. Hmmmm...
Whatever your views on the origins of the storms, they are causing a great deal of grief in real life and one way that are doing that is by interrupting the flow and price of basic foods around the rest of Australia.
You don't need to be reminded that the things are getting increasingly tough and considerably crazier as empire and capitalism crumble around us. We have to look at staple crops that we can easily grow at home. Tomatoes fit the bill perfectly and are a key Summer staple that can be prepared and preserved for eating throughout the rest of the year.
You may already know that the Tomatoes that you get in the supermarkets are rubbish and that there is a huge amount of waste in the system that gets the tomatoes to the supermarket shelves.
I've mentioned before that every year, I get to pick 'waste' tomatoes from the vines at a local commercial greenhouse and distribute them to local food networks.. What do they define as waste? The answer is 'anything red'.
It turns out that growers can't sell red tomatoes to the supermarkets because they can't be transported or stored well. Consequently, tomatoes are generally picked in commercial ventures while still mostly green and the red ones discarded. Some tomatoes are also gassed with Ethylene to turn them red on the outside and make them appear ripe. Nothing like a home grown, vine ripened fruit at all. Yes, I said 'fruit' because tomatoes are, botanically, a fruit, not a vegetable, even though we use them as such. How's that for a bit of trivia?
Our friendly growers can see the sense in letting local community groups come and pick the red tomatoes for distribution to local charities who then give away food to people doing it tough. So, usually once in the middle of the season, we get to pick the red ones. At the end of the season, the owners go through and cut all of the vines at ground level and let them dry for a couple of weeks before pulling them out and burning them. Needless to say, there are still plenty of tomatoes on these vines and this is our second opportunity to jump in and rescue some more. When I say 'some', I have never picked less than 50 kg at a time myself and there are dozens of locals with a similar mindset who put in the time and effort to pick and distribute ripe, red tomatoes.
It is one of the curses of capitalism that such waste is encouraged in the name of efficiency and profit. In order to make a living, the growers must cut costs as much as possible and in situations like this 'costs' are the extra time and labour it would take to pick and distribute this unsold bounty. Fortunately, our growers see a slightly bigger picture but they are small fish when compared to the big players.
I took a picture the other day of a package of two medium sized tomatoes on sale for $5.00. If that wasn't shocking enough, their original price was $9.00! Yes, $9.00 for two tomatoes!
So what can we do about it all? There are many things but the key is to grow a lot of your own vegetables. You don't need to grow them all. Just growing a few can really help your health, your weekly budget and your sanity. Growing a few of your own vegetables can also help retain and even encourage biodiversity and save plant strains from going extinct. Growing a little of your own food can contribute to reducing plastic waste, pollution and greenhouse gas emissions as well. That's a lot to ask from a handful of veggie seedlings!
I'll be posting a few tips about growing veggies now that Summer is near as I take lots of pics of me propagating and planting. Keep an eye out for them!
Thank you for sharing this post on HIVE!
Your content got selected by our fellow curator semarekha & you received a little thank you upvote from our non-profit curation initiative. Your post will be featured in one of our recurring curation compilations which is aiming to offer you a stage to widen your audience within the DIY scene of Hive.
Next time make sure to post / cross-post your creation within the DIYHub community on HIVE and you will receive a higher upvote!
Stay creative & hive on!
thank you!
Everyone should start planting. Another way to beat the system is to sloeky start replacing the ornamental trees in your garden with one's that have edible fruit or leaves. There are a lot available that looks good and needs minimal care.
YEs. Planting what you can wherever you can is definitely the plan!
Of course cloud seeding is for real, it's been 20 years!
Funny thing though, US gov only admits when it's China doing it, really weird!
Damn that's expensive for 2 tomatoes plants! I guess it's worth harvesting the old ones, right?
I might do this actually not a bad idea! Take care! I'll be following up!
"Funny thing though, US gov only admits when it's China doing it, really weird!"🤣
Food prices are nuts here, even though we live right next to a prime growing area.
It seems like the prices are nuts everywhere, the only place where it seemed to be a bit better, was here in Spain, and still, we gotta be extra careful each month.
Wait until SHTF soon, it's going to be a fun ride 😄
Capitalism is crumbling and there are so many options for different lives that it makes me cry with joy!
Must. Plant. More. Tomatoes.
Everything is getting eaten by slaters at moment. My seedlings all failed. I don't know what the hell is going on.
The slaters are in large numbers here too. They're just doing their jobs. The extra water and warmth are making lots of organic material break down and it is the slater's job to break them down faster so that the soil microbes can break them down further into a form that the plants can eat.
Laying things on the ground help, then you can collect the slaters from beneath and feed them to your chooks or eat them yourself. Linseed oil seems to attract them. The only other thing is physical covers until the seedlings get bigger or the weather dries out.
Yes I have been laying cabbage leaves down. That works pretty well.
Its a pretty effective trap
@shaidon is growing tomatoes for the first time, here in Adelaide. I gotta do something with my backyard. Its weeds now.
Tomatoes as in two actual tomatoes.
Several plants but largely a whole heap of fungus gnats.
Weeds aren't that bad. At least they show the soil is alive!
Congratulations @ligayagardener! You have completed the following achievement on the Hive blockchain and have been rewarded with new badge(s):
Your next target is to reach 21000 upvotes.
You can view your badges on your board and compare yourself to others in the Ranking
If you no longer want to receive notifications, reply to this comment with the word
STOPYes! @ligayagardener !! I've been astonished for decades at how much folks pay - and for vegetables/ fruit that basically has no taste or nutrition!! I was going to comment at that being a lot of money for two tomatoes, but it could also be seen as a lot for at least a few tomato seeds BUT BUT BUT of course these might be GMO tomatoes (even if labelled 'organic' - I wouldn't trust anything as really organic if it comes from a supermarket or is mass-produced); the seeds might not be fertile or life-full having been transported far and cultivated unnaturally... Either way - if someone hasn't realised by now that they're enslaved to transacting for things that are free from Nature, and that the cost of those transactions is spiralling upwards increasingly rapidly, there's MORE hope each day that they might reach their limit!
At least the beautiful truth of it all, is that Nature is always here and will always be here, no matter the extent of the fussing with it that we are consenting to. Gaia Sophia will thrive no matter what. So any time we're ready, to get on with the good work of thriving with her, we can 😛😍🤗
1000% agreed!