There are just some things that I won’t compromise on…tomatoes being one of them. My family get this…so it didn’t surprise them when I brought home my favorite souvenir from my Oregon vacation and it was some huge heirloom tomatoes! LOL!
My paternal Grandfather, “Grampa”, lived across the street and 3 doors down from where I grew up. Grampa had the greenest green-thumb I’ve ever seen. There wasn’t anything that he couldn’t grow. For example, his front yard was roses…I don’t know how many varieties he had. The back yard consisted of mature fruit trees, concord grape vines and I don’t know how many other vegetables as well as a greenhouse he built using a 2×4 lumber frame and sheets of obscure fiberglass.
Because Grampa grew his tomatoes in the greenhouse, there wasn’t much opportunity for wind or insect pollinators so he would “tickle the tomatos”. Grampa, being the innovator that he is, came up with the idea to take a small, natural hair paintbrush (or cotton Q-tip in a pinch) and insert it into each blossom, thus doing the pollination manually.
Grampa grew tomatoes…big, juicy, bright red, firm fleshed, beefsteak tomatoes. It wasn’t until after Grampa died and I was forced to eat store-bought, mealy, vaguely red, nasty tomatoes, that I truly started to appreciate the tomatoes Grampa grew. So any time I get the chance to bring home some locally farm grown or home grown tomatoes, I’m there! Just so happens we stumbled on a great farm between Tehachapi and Bakersfield that grew these gorgeous heirloom tomatoes. We got there later in the day and there weren’t a whole lot of tomatoes left, so I grabbed what I thought we could eat before they spoiled and off we went. My first task upon arriving home was to make BaT sandwiches…bacon and tomato sandwiches.
Back to the post title and opening statement…I am a total snob when it comes to purses (Dooney & Bourke, although I did just purchase my first Coach bag and am liking it), perfume, camera gear (Canon) and bottled water. Bri would probably say I am a snob about other things…but I can’t think of any others off hand.
Filed under: All About Pam
Hello friend! I don’t eat those things but your picture makes me kinda want to try one:) KINDA!
Hop over to my blog….there is something waiting for you!!!
I am also a purse snob !!
Pam you speak of home grown tomatoes. I love tomatoes and my Dad was one of the largest tomatoes growers for Hunt’s in Ventura County and we would go and pick those wonderful tomatoes and I remember your Mom would go some times and get some. Yum!! Kristen growns wonderful tomatoes but there is a guy from our church that grows tomatoes and sells them to our local stores and they are just about as good as my Dads. Home Grown are the Best!!!!