iTomato 2.2
Have I run this vegemite reference into the ground yet?
The tomatoes are doing ok. I forgot that I needed to spray them for a little while there, so the first few that came ripe got stung by grubs and ended up with the chickens. However, I’m all over the routine now and everything is starting to ripen nicely:
The tomatoes look like they’re in gaol because the chickens have been a bit destructive of late. The girls were looking a little run-down, so we thought that it were past time to protect the garden beds so we can let them range freely through the yard without having to supervise them. They’re fairly happy with this development, and proceeded to celebrate by destroying some beetles (part 1 and part 2). At one point, we had to preform a bit of surgery on one of them – she had a beetle that she hadn’t chewed enough, and it was stuck in her gob. I got the easy job of holding her whilst I made Jill pull the beetle out.
Getting back to the point, I picked a nice bunch of toms this morning for breakfast:
It turned out to be quite a special breakfast of scrambled eggs with tomatoes, oregano, argula, and parsley. Special because everything was produced in our backyard – not that I’m a big believer in this ‘food mile’ idea, but it’s nice to know the mileage on this particular meal was best measured in centimetres.
On an aside, the reason I’m a bit sceptical about measuring food mileage is that people tend to gloss over economies of scale. Sure, if a truck drove one bit of food for thousands of kilometres by itself, then yes, that bit of food would have significant food mileage. However, the truck is bound to be carrying few other things as well, so the mileage needs to be divided across everything in the truck. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a big believer of buying seasonal food as locally as possible, but it’s a flaw in an argument that a lot of people use to justify their beliefs in these things, so it needs be adressed.
Anyway, to the meal. There’s no recipe, the photos should say it all really:
Don't do what Dave does 
What are you spraying your tomatoes with Dave? I can’t say I’ve had heaps of success with any of the ones I’ve tried to grow up here….and tomatoes are supposed to be easy!
I’ve been using a pyrethrum solution, which is hopefully natural/organic (I should really look this up). I’ve been trying to find some pyrethrum seeds to plant the flowers myself, but no luck so far.
I think the biggest part of the problem is that tomatoes are often seen as a late spring/summer fruit, but the Qld people in the Gardening Australia magazine tell me that that’s completely wrong for Brisbane. Mine are surviving right now, but they aren’t thriving as much as the ones I grew in Autumn this year (less humid, less heat, and less bugs to eat the fruit).