June 29, 2012 -- green shouldered tomatoes, etc.

I guess you can tell what's here: ripe tomatoes, a little bit of basil (in red vase), and a green pepper. They are just so pretty to look at, although this display started differently. I had planned to just display some tomatoes with "green shoulders," because I heard a piece about them on the radio yesterday. Evidently, lots of heirloom tomatoes have green shoulders (tops that don't turn red when the rest of the tomato does). This trait, so the expert said, has been bred out of most modern tomatoes, because consumers want an all-red, perfectly round tomato. But it has been discovered that older varieties, which are often misshappen and have green-shoulders, taste better than newer varieties because all that cholorphyll on top is helping the rest of the tomato develop its sugars. Anyway, I now see green shouldered tomatoes, like the ones below, in a new light