Tomatoes on Thursa Beach

[golach]

Is this a wind up Bill.....are the Cooncil gardners an the Tourist Board for Thursa in cahoots with each other and trying till get us believe that the weather is that good....or if ye believe in Global Warming is it that bad that Tomatoes can suddenly appear on a part on Thursa Beach where most of the public and tourists pass by everyday.
I am very doubtful but Dounreay is no far away and are these plants a result of all the fallout we have been hearing about, maybe the Dounreay rabbits are visiting Thursa more often????
a sceptical Golach ( but willing till be proved wrong)

[jjc]

Down here in the south (where the weather is warmer and things will grow outside) we get a lot of tomato plants growing along the banks of streams that flow around the sewage works. It has something to do with their seeds being quite likely to survive not only the digestive system but also the sewage treatment works. They are therefore in a good position to grow strongly when they hit the first piece of land.

As I recall, there is a very good reason why the surfing is so good by Thurso Castle…

Perhaps this is a visible sign that the sewage pipe running out to sea from the end of the harbour deposits at least some of its waste into a current that flows back onto the beach. I wonder what else has washed up that was never noticed because it didn’t set root and bloom?

Makes you think twice about going for a quick paddle, doesn’t it?

[dpw39]

An old gardening tip is to use human faeces mixed with water for tomato food, and apparently gardeners swear by it! Obviously they don't shout about it (no wonder its semi-secret).

Off Morcambe (pronounced coloquically as Morry Camby) Head, just down from the power station, the conger eals are rather large due to the effluent and other materials floating around the area mmmmm makes one thing rather deeply, doesn't it?

It could be worse, it could be like Tangiers in Morroco (erghhh

Ciao,

Dave the Rave

[golach]

The Tomato is the fruit of the (surprise!) tomato plant, a vine-like plant which belongs to the nightshade family.
The tomato plant likes a sunny, hot, and humid environment. It originated in South America and was domesticated by the Incas.
They bred the tomato so it had many ruffles and ridges. Spanish monks cultivated the tomato, although it was not widely accepted by Europeans as an edible fruit. Thomas Jefferson was known to be a connoisseur of the tomato and tried to convince people it was a great fruit(no wonder he is considered a great American).
During the nineteenth century, the tomato was affectionately call the love apple, or in french, le pomme d'amour. At the turn of the century, a gardener decided that he didn't like the ridges and ruffles of the Incan tomato.
He spent twenty years breeding them out and produced the Paragon, the first formal variety of the tomato. It is now the most widely grown "vegetable"(it's a fruit, you know) in the United States.

Common Misconceptions about the tomato:
Over the years many myths have stemmed from the tomato vine. Among them are: MYTH: The tomato is poisonous.

FACT: The tomato is, in fact, perfectly harmless, and mighty tasty as well. This myth originated when people noticed that the tomato is related to the nightshade, a wild plant with toxic berries.

MYTH: Tomatoes are vegetables.

FACT: Tomatoes are not vegetables- they are fruit. A fruit is defined as the mature ovary of an angiosperm, meaning that is develops from the reproductive structures of an angiosperm (flowering plant). The fruits themselves are fleshy bodies containing seeds. Tomatoes meet all these criteria. There is no scientific definition for vegetable; however, vegetables range from taproots (such as the carrot) to tubers (the potato) to stems (asparagus).

MYTH: All tomatoes are red when ripe.

FACT: There are myriad varieties of tomato, and not all of them are red when ripe. Tomatoes run from yellow to deep purple in color. For example, the Lemon Boy variety is yellow, and the Cherokee Purple is, well, purple.

[Kenn]

OH now wasn't that informative golach..so where do you grow "The Fruit of Love"? I seem to remember a certain chatter who said she spat out her strange flavoured crisps on Thurso beach Now Ken never went near the place with his cheese/tomato sarnie I will bear witness to that besides those Herring Gulls wudda cleared it up faster that a click of the fingers.On a final note I am told that wold salmon is delicious with a light tomato and lemon sauce and what better than they shud all be gathered together!
Picture of lemon tree growing on banks of Thurso river expected shortly

[jjc]

FACT: The tomato is, in fact, perfectly harmless

Thanks for clearing that one up Golach...

I've long had my suspicions about those evil red fruit; there’s just something not quite right about them. I’m glad that I will now be able to enjoy my BLT in comfort

[Anonymous]

I can't compete with golach. (Respect for so much detail.)

But tomatoes will grow anywhere you spit a seed out, so long as an early frost doesn't get them. The reason we're seeing them this year is not 'cos we've had a great summer, but because we had a frost-free spring, so they weren't all killed off . .!

I doubt if they'll ripen though, unless we get a real Indian summer.

And if, as golach suggests, Dounreay rabbits are to blame, they won't go from green to red, but green to glowing.

But seriously, folks . . .

I'd be the first to encourage everyone to save seed, and grow your own next year, but it is a harsh fact of life that, while this may work for tomatoes in Alicante, it won't work here. If the toms on Thurso beach and Wick river ever set fruit, they won't ripen.

This late in the season, they'll succumb to blight and blackleg.

Remember, they are so closely related to the potato it's almost incestuous. The French have it sussed - Pommes d'amour and Pommes de terre. Love apples and apples of the earth. Tomatoes and tatties.

Great tourist attraction, though. Wish we had tne medium to promote it.

(If it was on Grampian TV, I missed it. If it wasn't, why not?)


Mike

[dpw39]

Well Golach, I to am suitably impressed . Was it the OU where you got your Phd , or has daytime TV dramatically been enhanced since I last viewed it? Very very interesting, good on yer mate .

Must go now as I've got to ketch-up on my gardening duties. Keep the faith bro,

Ciao,


Dave the Rave

Ps... Sliced toms in shallow fried in Beef Dripping, seasoned with S & P and served on a bed of Fried Bread (trianglised with the crusts removed), and topped with a sprinkling of parsley. Mmmmm... delicious [/b]

[Mr Sensitive]

But it loses a little in the translation. As always, the original is best

http://members.aol.com/RBI82/randy/tomato.html

Seriously, I didn't know the humble tomato was called a love apple. I saw a box of "Tom d'amour" in my local shop this very afternoon and made a silly comment about tomatoes of love. Next thing, I come in here and discover love apples growing wild in Wick and Thurso. I could grow to like this global warming lark.

I look forward to my dotage and my first glass of deep red Thurseau Noveau. Slainte!