I stopped by a fast-food restaurant the other day and
finally decided on one of the
fried, spicy, chicken sandwiches.

The young lady at the counter asked if I wanted lettuce and
tomato on the sandwich.
There was an extra charge, but I thought, “I need to help
the farmers, so why
not?”

I found a seat and unwrapped the foil. Ah, the aroma was
delicious, as was the first
bite of chicken. The second bite seemed to include a bit of
seaweed — no, that was the
lettuce. Another bite — “Hmmm. What’s crunchy? Tomato?
Now, that’s adding insult to
injury.”

‘You Know You’re in
Trouble…’

The tomato, which should have been mellow with that slightly
acidic bite, had all of
the crunch of a good Granny Smith apple. “You know you’re
in trouble,” I told my
wife, “when the tomato has more crunch than the fried
chicken.”

Tomatoes these days are shipped green. Cultivars are
“shippers” first. Taste
comes in last. These are better known as 8 mph (miles per hour)
tomatoes. That’s the kind
of shock they can endure and not be bruised.

These tomatoes had been ripened in transit, not on the
vine.

Foolproof
Tomatoes

The only foolproof way to insure good taste in tomatoes is
to grow them yourself. Watch
over them, baby them, fertilize, water, prune, pick bugs,
etc.

Otherwise, just be reconciled to faint pink slices that lend
crunch to your sandwich.

Crunchy tomatoes. To me, that’s just another reason to keep
those tomatoes growing so
you can fix a “real” sandwich at home that tastes the
way it should.