GK - You might want to add to your Tomato file the recipe for Brazos River Catfish Stew. The ingredients are tomato soup concentrate, catchup, a diced onion, diced salt pork, chunks of catfish from fillets, butter, cayenne pepper, worcestershire sauce, cayenne pepper, etc. How much of each depends. You know how it goes. Ideally it should be cooked in a big pot over an open fire along the river bank, but it works pretty good in the kitchen, too.

Something grown fresh out of the ground has got to trump anything that comes out of a box, no matter what they have done to make it seem like it is a real food worth putting in your mouth..

Actually, it was Brian Williams who warned me
off tomatoes as a mean of cancer defense.
I've always been an NBC fan -- even taught
Jess Marlow to sail!

As for "You Know Who," since most who
live in San Clemente now are young and
from other countries, his name is
all but forgotten (we'd like to keep it
that way).

I will take your advice, Mr. Keillor. I only
wish I had had the opportunity to taste
tomatoes fresh off the vine. Do lemons count?
We have plenty of them on our tree at
Christmas time.

Sandy

I moved to the west coast of California from New York State in 1978. One of the best memories of living in New York was the ability to pick a fresh tomato right off the vine in our backyard and sitting on the front porch with my tomato and a salt shaker eating that delicious, warm, fleshy fruit. Cancer defense or not, it doesn't matter. What matters is the enjoyment of that wonderful taste. California has missed out.

Fay

I LOVE tomatoes but, as anyone who has ever had to sit with elementary children in a school cafeteria can attest, they most assuredly DO NOT include mellowing agents when ingested in the form of ketchup.

As to the medical importance of the tomato...what will be, will be. We all know about today's medical reports, fickle as they are! However, there is nothing better than the homegrown tomato! Any tomato "dish" emerging from a restaurant kitchen, must surely find them with the mushrooms in a dark corner somewhere. They aren't fit to eat. Whatever happened to our good, old tomatoes of the 50's/60's? Cold War or not, those were the good old days! Can't wait for my Montana garden to finish my tomatoes!

Mary,
I'll trade some of your tomatoes
for my juicy Meyer lemons, but
there's one catch -- you'll have
to invite me over since the state
of California probably won't let you
ship them to me.
Deal?
Sandy