My husband and I are new to west Texas. Throughout the summer of 2020, we’ve lived like hermits to avoid Covid 19. Since we seldom traveled, we decided to farm in the back yard. Our garden consisted of a few large flowerpots.
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| These Beefsteak tomatoes are normally huge, but since they are a late crop, they didn't grow big before ripening. |
In the extreme
heat we found it necessary to sprinkle copious amounts of water on our potted
plants morning and evening. Our tomato plants survived but yielded no fruit. When
the weather started to cool, they blossomed.
And then the
little red tomatoes had blossom rot. We’ve been grinding eggshells to prevent
it. Some articles I’ve read say applying eggshells to the soil won’t prevent
blossom rot, but we have evidence it does help.
Now, we have
delicious tomatoes to add to our salads.
In the meantime, I
have been writing a novel set in 1917 and 1918. To guarantee authenticity, everything
requires research. I’ve heard that people did not eat tomatoes in Europe and
the United States until the 1800’s. If my characters ate tomatoes, I needed to
be sure I was writing something that really happened.
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| Release date 11-11-2020 Available at discount until then |
"Sue made cathead biscuits and tomato gravy with thick bacon. She poured steaming coffee into four mugs."
Having grown up in
the 1940’s and 1950’s, I knew one of the popular meals in rural Mississippi was
the one described in the above quotation. My grandmother taught my mother to
cook biscuits and gravy. I couldn’t verify though that my grandmother in the
early 1900’s ate tomatoes. My father, born in 1898, refused to eat raw tomatoes.
Through research I
discovered that the taste for tomatoes evolved and grew during the nineteenth
century. The Globe tomato, which is still a popular variety, appeared first in
1906.
Here’s an interesting
article about the history of tomatoes in Grit, Rural American Know How:
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