Rotten Tomatoes

Green tomatoes picked before the hard freeze overnight November 5, 2010

My tomato plants have been much more prolific at the end of their life cycle than they were earlier in the summer.

Hmmm ... I wonder if there's a life lesson there anywhere?

Anyway, I felt like I got pelted with rotten tomatoes when when I got my first hate mail on my blog last month. It was a response to The Legacy of Agriculture, which I wrote back in July, so I was a little surprised to get reaction from that post in October, but there it was.

Besides implying I'm a mercenary, the writer also disparaged my tomato crop. (I've left punctuation, etc., as he/she wrote it):

In part, he/she wrote:

You should really take off the blindfold. Grow more gmos use more chemical fertilizers spray more poison onto the food supply. All in the name of "feeding the hungry". The poor are being poisoned as corporate wallets get fatter. The farmer is stuck in the middle. The decision is clear become a mercenary and kill for money, or stand up and say I won't spray those chemicals I won't use the chemical fertilizers or grow seeds developed in a lab. Of course saying no comes with the very real risk of losing everything. However isn't it better than wearing a blindfold and pretending everything is ok. I read a previous blogging of yours about the cheese dreams and how you were only able to grow two tomatoes and one had a hole in it. Perhaps you didn't spray enough round up!

That little love letter appeared the first day of vacation. I was innocently reading my email in a motel lobby in North Platte, Neb., and there it was. What a way to begin our journey!

The writer wished me well, which I appreciated, but that didn't do much to alleviate the very real, stomach-churning realization that I had HATE mail. Or at least dislike mail. Yikes!

But isn't that part of the reason I started blogging? Isn't this supposed to be a way for me to talk about what we do and why we do it that way?

So ... deep breath .. dislike mail is OK.

And I really do hope my anonymous reader will check back and get glimpses of life on a real Kansas farm. Maybe then, the writer will discover we are a real family who loves farming and tries to do the best for our family and the world.

And, much less importantly, he/she will discover that we were able to grow more tomatoes during the summer. In my defense, the Cheese Dream post was early in the summer and we were just starting to enjoy the fruits of our (uh, Randy's) efforts.

I got to enjoy Cheese Dreams all summer long. But I also tried a new treat since I had a basket full of green tomatoes. I'd never made Fried Green Tomatoes before, but as usual, Betty Crocker came to my rescue with a recipe.

They were good, though I still say you can't beat fresh, garden tomatoes, sprinkled with a little salt and pepper - even if you have to cut around a hole or two.

Easy Panfried Tomatoes

4 firm ripe or green medium tomatoes (about 1 1/2 pounds)
1/2 cup flour
1 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
1/3 cup butter

Wash tomatoes. Cut into slices. Mix flour, salt and pepper. Dip tomato slices into flour mixture. Heat butter in 10-inch skillet until melted. Add tomato slices; cook, turning once, until golden brown. Serves 3 or 4.