Garden-Fresh ‘Maters

As a child I am not sure that I realized you could purchase fresh tomatoes in a store, because all the ones I ate were homegrown and garden-fresh.

My family lived with my grandmother from the time I was six, and every year she grew the most delicious tomatoes. She did not have a huge garden, but instead, she planted tomatoes (and sometimes other vegetables) in the spaces between her beloved rosebushes. I remember that she saved our coffee grounds to amend the soil. Even though the concept of organic gardening was not well known in the 1970s, she instinctively knew that the flavor of the tomatoes would be enhanced by improving the soil. Nano kept gardening well into her 90s, and I still remember the taste of those sweet and juicy tomatoes.

For most of my adult life I have not had a garden, but I still love garden-fresh tomatoes. You can’t buy these in the grocery store because commercial tomatoes have to be picked a bit green to be shipped without bruising. They are then exposed to ethylene gas to turn them red. Yuck!

The most flavorful tomatoes are homegrown or purchased at a farmers market.

It is important to know that conventional tomatoes are number 10 on the Environmental Working Group’s Dirty Dozen list (EWG.org/foodnews/dirty-dozen.php). This means that you should purchase organic tomatoes in order to reduce your exposure to toxins. Since store bought tomatoes, even organic ones, don’t taste great, this is one food you definitely should obtain from a trusted source such as your local farmers market.

While most vendors at local farmers markets are honest, there are always a few who misrepresent conventional produce for organic, so make sure and check out each vendor.

Tomatoes are very nutrient-rich.

They are ranked equal to kale, with a nutrient richness of 34, by George Mateljan (WHFoods.org) in The World’s Healthiest Foods. And, unlike kale, most people enjoy tomatoes. Tomatoes are actually a fruit by botanical classification, although they are eaten as a vegetable. They are excellent sources of vitamins C, A, K, B1, and B6. They are also good sources of the minerals molybdenum, potassium, manganese, chromium, folate, and copper, as well as a number of the carotenoids including lycopene. Lycopene has been found to protect cells, DNA, and LDL cholesterol from oxidation. But the synergy from the nutrients in tomatoes as a whole are even better than lycopene alone and are protective against cancer and heart disease. Interestingly, many of the nutrients in tomatoes are actually released in greater quantities when tomatoes are cooked rather than eaten raw, so enjoy them both cooked and raw.

Tomatoes also have the best taste when they are stored at room temperature.

You should not refrigerate them unless they are in danger of over-ripening. To avoid additional chemical exposures when buying canned tomatoes, try to purchase them either in glass or in BPA-free cans, because the acidity in tomatoes can cause the chemicals in the linings of the cans to leach out.

Tomatoes are a member of the nightshade family of plants.

This family includes potatoes, chili peppers, green and red peppers, paprika, and eggplant in addition to tomatoes. Nightshade sensitivity is a problem for some people, particularly those with joint problems such as rheumatoid arthritis or osteoarthritis. If you have regular joint or muscle pain, you might want to consider eliminating all nightshade vegetables, including tomatoes, for a period to see whether it helps your condition. Many people are sensitive to some but not all nightshades. I am personally sensitive to most nightshades, but raw tomatoes are fine for me.

Whether you enjoy your tomatoes in salads, as part of a BLT, or in spaghetti sauce, I hope you eat plenty of fresh tomatoes this summer. One of our favorite recipes using tomatoes is below.

Cucumber-Tomato Dill Salad

Salad ingredients:

  • 2 cucumbers, peeled and sliced
  • 2 regular tomatoes, or 1 pint grape tomatoes, cut up
  • 1/2 Vidalia (or other sweet) onion, chopped

Dressing ingredients:

  • 1 tsp dried dill
  • 2 tbsp coconut vinegar or apple cider vinegar
  • 1 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
  • 1/2 tsp sea salt

Combine the cucumbers, tomatoes, and onions in a large bowl. Whisk all the dressing ingredients together in a small bowl. Pour the dressing over the salad and gently toss. Let stand for an hour or two for the flavors to combine before serving if possible.

Makes 4–6 servings.

Recipe adapted from The Whole Life Nutrition Cookbook.

Picture of Ginger Hudock

Ginger Hudock

Ginger Hudock’s eclectic background includes degrees in vocal performance, finance and nutrition. She worked as the Vice Chancellor for Business and Finance at USC Aiken for 25 years before beginning her nutrition career. Her writing has appeared online at TheMighty.com, in addition to a monthly nutrition column for Aiken’s Bella Magazine. You can read more of Ginger’s articles about food, nutrition, faith and personal finance at her blog www.GingerHudock.com.
Picture of Ginger Hudock

Ginger Hudock

Ginger Hudock’s eclectic background includes degrees in vocal performance, finance and nutrition. She worked as the Vice Chancellor for Business and Finance at USC Aiken for 25 years before beginning her nutrition career. Her writing has appeared online at TheMighty.com, in addition to a monthly nutrition column for Aiken’s Bella Magazine. You can read more of Ginger’s articles about food, nutrition, faith and personal finance at her blog www.GingerHudock.com.

In the know

Related Stories

Take Action to Change Your Results | Palmetto Bella

Take Action to Change Your Results

Did you gain the “COVID-19” over the past year? It is similar to the “Freshman 15” — a number of studies show that many people did gain weight in 2020. In a poll taken by WebMD®, 50% of women and 25% of men reported they had gained weight during the pandemic lockdowns. Another survey by Weight Watchers® had similar results. About a third of the Weight Watchers respondents said they gained weight, with the average gain of 12 1/2 pounds. Another study of nearly 8000 adults was taken last April, with results published in the Journal of Obesity. Almost 28% of the total sample reported weight gain. Individually we can

Read More »
How Can LDN Help in Chronic Conditions and Pain? | Palmetto Bella

How Can LDN Help in Chronic Conditions and Pain?

Nearly half of all Americans have at least one chronic disease. Once you have one chronic disease, you have a higher risk of developing others. Inflammation seems to be at the root of all disease. What if there were a cost effective agent that could help fight inflammation, that could regulate your immune system so it doesn’t get out of hand, and that could be useful in treating major health issues like chronic pain, mental health conditions, autoimmune conditions, and even cancers? It does seem too good to be true, so let’s look at the science, and then you can decide whether this may be right for you. What is

Read More »
Love and Lemon Pound Cake | Palmetto Cake

Love and Lemon Pound Cake

I was walking through the market area in Charleston in May of 2019. As I was noticing the sweetgrass baskets, kitschy T-shirts, spice mixes, and beach treasures, I spied some bottles of extract. This was a brand that I had not often seen since childhood. There, among the many items of the market, were bottles of lemon extract. Seeing them took me back to the kitchen of my childhood home in Greensboro, North Carolina, some 45 years earlier, where that extract could be found on the spice rack. “Hi Mom! Hi Nano! I’m home from school!” I yelled to my mother and grandmother as I opened the back door that

Read More »
Childhood Obesity: Who is to blame? | Palmetto Bella

Childhood Obesity: Who is to blame?

A society must be judged by how it treats its most vulnerable members: its children. It seems that America is falling shamefully short. We know that to succeed, children need stable homes, quality health care, ample nutritious food, good schools, safe neighborhoods, and access to resources and opportunities that enable them to reach their potential. For too many of our children, especially children of color, these basic building blocks are out of reach. And yet, in the wealthiest nation on Earth, the proportion of federal dollars invested in children has fallen to its lowest level in a decade. The shameful state of your child’s health is not an inevitability —

Read More »