My local Wendy’s has a sign up saying tomatoes are scarce and will be offered only by request, and this is in California. So, this article by Marlo Lewis about sandwich shops in DC illustrates a nationwide effect. – Anthony
Can Tomatoes Take Any More Global Warming? By Marlo Lewis
Today, my friendly neighborhood Potbelly Sandwich Shop posted dozens of small flyers along the ordering line, asking: “Where are the tomatoes?” The flyer explained:
The recent cold weather across North America has had a severe impact on the availability, quality and cost of tomatoes.
Due to these factors, we will temporarily cease to offer tomatoes on your sandwhich. As soon as the tomato crop returns to normal we will add them back to your sandwiches.
We apologize for this inconvenience. We do not want to compromise on the quality or value of our sandwiches.
More evidence – if any were needed – that winter endangers public health and welfare. Tomatoes are a great source of anti-oxidents and other health-enhancing nutrients. And they are delish!
Besides ruining tomatoes, winter is strongly correlated with cold and flu. Winter can also cause or contribute to power outages, travel disruptions and delays, traffic accidents, and injuries from slipping on ice.
You’d think that by now global warming would have made harsh winter weather a thing of the past. Alas, no. Our tomatoes, and the health and welfare benefits they bring, are still endangered.
But be of good cheer. The carbon dioxide emissions allegedly responsible for Al Gore’s “planetary emergency” are helping tomatoes beef up. The Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change maintains a database on field and laboratory experiments measuring plant growth response to CO2-enriched environments. Here’s the link for data on tomatoes.
A whopping 45 studies have examined the effects of CO2 enrichment on the garden tomato (lycopersicon eculentum). On average, garden tomatoes gain 32.
See the whole post here.
Joe D’Aleo writes:
Here is an approximate, preliminary look at the winter for the 90 days ending february 26, 2011. December/January was the coldest in Florida (winter vegetables) history and remember the frosts and freezes in California and south Texas.
I’ll have more on the tomatoes and cold story coming up, a story about Mexico – Anthony
Back in about 2001 my soon-to-be-wife started some tomatos along a westerly facing stockade fence at her parents house. This is in New Jersey, mind. Those plants kept going until December! The fence line provided just enough reflected heat to extend the growing season enormously. The same principle was used, I believe, in creating fruit walls in England to provide citrus in an otherwise inhospitable climate.
Pamela Gray says:
March 1, 2011 at 6:29 am
“If our toms froze, it was because we were too damn lazy to get out to the garden and pick them green.”
In case you are not aware, as to those green toms; disinfect them with a mild bleach rinse and dry them, place them in large jars or a terrarium and they will ripen up over the course of several months. Yum. Fresh home grown toms in December! If you have the space to hang the whole plant indoors they will ripen on the vine.
Wow, that was strange. I reloaded this page around 4:45pm EST, and the sidebar was changed, the comments were gone… Looks like this page was briefly hooked up with FoodPress. From here I gathered it’s a wordpress aggregating site, gathers up posts from wordpress-dot-com sites that feature recipes. Everything was back to normal after a reload. I have screenshots!
Who knew talking about tomatoes could screw up this site? Must have been the mentioning of fried green tomatoes, salsa and chutney, and venison!
Re: previous post
6:38pm EST, It Did It Again! WUWT?
Warmer Is Better. Fight the Ice.
The above posts are so right about night time temps being all important to toms. 55 F and above works well. We would stack sun-warmed black tires around the toms at night in chilly Wallowa County. That worked quite well. We also carefully tried to ripen the green toms on and off the vine per the instructions in a post above. Didn’t work. We liked fried green toms just too much to wait for green ones to turn red. And there is nothing better than a spiced up hotter-n-hell green tom salsa. Add trout, venison or elk to the mix and I’m in country-girl hog heaven.
Addendum: veggies grown in hot-houses or shipped from far-off states and countries taste like sawdust. Even eggs have a different flavor (and yolk color) when the chickens themselves deliver their eggs to your front door.
CO2 fertilisation of greenhouse tomatoes has been utilised by commercial growers for at least a couple of decades. IIRC an Australian grower was one of the earlier ones who developed the technique.
For you tomato lovers, simply put one or two plants in big pots. I live at 6600 feet at 39.5°N. We expect frost Sept. 15 to May 31. Last summer I put one 3 foot plant in front of a big south facing window in mid-September. By the end of the year it was eight feet tall and turning out tomatoes like crazy. By the way, I’m on a north facing slope with hills to the SE and SW limiting sunlight to 4-5 hours a day from Sept. 30th to March 10th.
So for you champeen tomato growers: Take your own to the burger joint. Bring an extra or two, and offer to swap one even up for a burger! They’d probably jump at it.