I am still in the state where everything is about cancer. It’s like people say that you don’t remember hearing anything about x, y, z (usually a disease) until you or a loved one gets it. Then suddenly every news story is about or everyone around you has x, y, or z.
So it was as I canned and froze some tomatoes this past week. Look at this tomato.
Yes, it looks gorgeous! It is big and ripe and round. A beauty. But what about that spot?
Before I drop the tomatoes in the boiling water I cut out the stem and core and make a few cuts with the tomato shark (best tool ever a cheaper model for $5 on Amazon) so the skin will peel off easily. And I look for blemishes and cut them out.
In past years, this would not even count as a blemish. But this year we’re cutting out ALL evidence of disease. In fact, the tomatoes that go into the jars or freezer containers are getting more scrutiny. No residual disease or signs of early disease allowed. Mostly it’s just discoloration from resting against blighted limbs, and that’s okay (but still gets scraped off). But a brown or black spot– out. Overly soft spots– out! Any kind of oozing– no good!
And still, every night we have pans full of good tomatoes, and Monday I couldn’t lift the bucket filled with potatoes and tomatoes and had to put the bucket in a wheelbarrow first.
Speaking of potatoes, I’ve had trouble digging up the big reds without spearing them… which seriously compromises their storage capability. But one I struck through with my hand spade and it made a kind of flap on one end of the potato. When I was going through the pail taking out the tomatoes on top, I moved that potato and the flap came up, exposing the white flesh. I had a visceral negative response I didn’t understand at first. Then I realized it was like surgery. A flap of skin lifted. The savagery of the spade through the potato. I just went on with my tomatoes… Realizing everything, for a while longer, is about cancer.
