This debate over the merits or otherwise of organic vegetables reminds me of a tale of carrots…as told by a gardener whose father was a chemist/horticultist…On first tasting carrots not sourced from her father’s plot, she thought how disappointing the flavour was and for a time she chomped her way through inferior carrotty carrots, marvelling at how her father had managed to produce such tasty carrots. It was a while before the penny dropped and she realised that what gave her father’s carrots their extra special flavour – was his other passion and profession – chemical fertilizers. What she had always thought of as “carrot flavour” was in fact the flavour of her father’s much beloved products….
I am not saying that this stands true for all or any other kind of vegetables or fertilizer products… and on the other hand having been one of the many people who made up the taste tests at Totally Tomato (which informed these results) taking part felt fun and informal but not necessarily rigorous… So I think I what I’d take from this is that it’s so much better for us to make our own decisions as to what fits all of our requirements – health, taste and budget…make a choice and not fret …everyone had their own agenda…
What ever their status one thing seems true for tomatoes – we are buying less single round tomatoes, less single cherry tomatoes… and more tomatoes on the vine…that’s according to the Dutch who last year exported 758 million kg of tomatoes!
And whilst in no way equal in actual weight – in fact a mere truckful – the export of tomatoes from the Gaza strip – the first since 2007 carries its own weight…
