GM foods

June 19, 2008 on 3:49 pm | In Uncategorized |

When it comes to genetically modified crops I’m a bit of an apathetic bystander. Having spent many years growing much of my own food I know that a lot of romantic nonsense gets peddled about the alleged virtues of ‘heirloom’ vegetables compared to the supposedly inferior hybrids developed by evil corporations.

However, something very strange has been going on with Australian tomatoes. I fear we are well beyond simple GM techniques and into a new era of tomatoes that are frankly not of this planet.

Witness exhibit A:

I bought this along with half a dozen of its siblings about six weeks ago. Since then it’s been sitting in my kitchen. The rest got eaten - despite being bright cheery red they were tasteless with the consistency of a fresh apple, so no surprises there - but for one reason or another this one got overlooked. In six weeks it hasn’t changed one iota. Long after any tomato I ever grew in the garden would have collapsed into a stinking soggy mess, this alien fruit just sits there … exactly the same colour and texture as it had when it left the factory warehouse.

It’s freaking me out.

4 Comments »

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  1. Ken,and welcome back ( the reason RTS blew up was NOT of my doing ;) ), the tomatoes bought from the ‘big two’ and other places are ,putting it bluntly a waste of money unless you spend about $9.00 a kilo for truss tomatoes,or growing you own. I know you will understand this, one good tomato with taste and juice is worth the money against the crap that is presented as fruit.See if you can get some Guyra ‘Blush’ tomatoes, are excellent however have a firm skin, good taste and medium keeping quality.Not cheap and at the moment they are re sowing so may be hard to get.If you get through Guyra,duck out and have a look at their setup,twenty hectares under glass and expanding!.
    I love tomatoes,problem is my growing season is very short so it’s feast or famine, so I obtain (carefully put) the Guyra tomatoes all year ’round. No doubt about KenL, there I was hanging out for a tomato thread and bingo!(Now, Nask and I must think on tomato music,I’ve thought and have found,RTS tomorrow perhaps? :) .

    Comment by Lang Mack — June 19, 2008 #

  2. They have the (no) flavour and texture because they are actually green tomatoes. They do some mysterious thing to them to make them go red without ripening. Same with bananas. They only start to taste like tomatoes or bananas when you cook them and heating does what enzymes have been prevented from doing.

    If you grow tomatoes from the seeds of that monstrosity they’ll be more like real tomatoes. Grow again from those second generation seeds and you’ll be pretty much back to the real thing.

    Comment by Lyn — June 19, 2008 #

  3. Lyn, it’s great that as you point out given a chance that the ‘manipulation’ can be reversed by attention.
    Ethylene is the go for bananas as far as I can remember, ripens the buggers real quick and they taste like s$%t, same as for controlled atmosphere for apples with nitrogen,and the boffins ,I’m about right,so don’t correct.
    Were lucky, we kill our meat, grow most of our vegetables and fruit, still use Vacola jars, have a wood stove, and thanks to Telstra, a wood computer:). By the way, if anyone thinks it’s an ideal life style,getting food on the table is hard work, but worth every effort, at this time I have a heap of garlic just coming up and looks good.(harvest around Dec/Jan) The garlic I grew last year and still using, when you flatten with the cleaver, the oil comes out of the clove and the taste is unbeatable.Oh well, did I mention our home brew? now there is an enjoyable pursuit, how to make friends…

    Comment by Lang Mack — June 19, 2008 #

  4. That garlic sounds tasty LM. And a wood stove…can make yummy pizzas. Great info Lyn. Welcome back Ken. Glad the killer tomatoes didn’t get ya…;)

    Comment by nasking — June 20, 2008 #

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