I Long for a Real Tomato

I long for a real tomato. One that is deep red, juicy and sweet. It has been years since I have eaten one. First they silently disappeared from the supermarkets but now they can’t even be found in the growers’ farm country produce stands. Not in Calfornia. Not in Ohio. Not in Hawaii.

They might look right on the outside but they don’t taste right on the inside. Most people I know don’t seem to remember the difference, it has been so long, and actually think that these fakirs are the real thing. I’ve paid many a high price for a good-looking gourmet tomato only to be disappointed time and time again.

Certainly they are better than the pink, fleshy, tasteless circles, in the name of tomatoes that are placed on our sandwiches, which nobody seems to care about. They may be an improvement on what is generally available in the grocery store. However, now that tomatoes are picked early, to avoid spoilage (since shelf life has become more important than taste) what is best now, is only best in comparison to what is now, far worse. No, tomatoes are definitely not what they used to be!

Small farm growers, please do not take offense. I am not chastising your earnest and hard work. We even have a couple of growers here on Kauai who have managed to considerably improve what is generally available to us. They are definitely better. I even buy them! But they are nothing like tomatoes used to be.

Last September I traveled to Italy on vacation. It had been 21 years since my last sojourn there and amidst my enthusiasm to enjoy the art, cuisine, beauty of the land and charm of the people, I was very excited to be able to, at long last, enjoy a great tomato once again. It was even the prime season for the tomato harvest.

To my dismay, however, not even in Italy, could I find the kind of quality tomato of yesteryear. One of my favorite culinary delights in Italy had been a simple fresh tomato and mozzarella salad. Not only were the tomatoes no longer deep red, sweet and juicy. They were half-green. The waiters (who were wearing short pants when I was last there) insisted this was the way restaurants always prepared this kind of salad.

Not so. Now that the soil is de-mineralized and pesticide poisoned, now that the earth, air and water have been polluted, now that the seeds have been biologically tampered with to resist insects and preserve shelf life, now that we can’t remember what a real tomato is even supposed to taste like - why not serve them half-green and sooner or later people will get used to that too?

The general standard of what is expected and acceptable has been lowered for so long it doesn’t seem low to us anymore. And it doesn’t stop with tomatoes. When was the last time you ate a really sweet and succulent peach, nectarine or plum that wasn’t hard and tasteless or soft and spongy? Remember when you could tell the fruit was ripe because of its tantalizing aroma?

Our standard’s have fallen so low that “It’s not bad” now means “it’s good”. Well, “It’s not bad” is just not good enough for me!

I feel like I am the little boy shouting and pointing at the emperor who has no clothes on. I refuse to pretend. I refuse to accommodate. And I refuse to forget.

You may wonder why am I getting so bent out of shape over the taste of a tomato? Well, yes I do really miss their deliciousness. However, I can’t help but wonder how many other diminished values and qualities have we accommodated our discernment to? How much of what we desire looks right on the outside but has nothing to offer on the inside? Are we in our modern, high tech, market-driven economy moving along an irreversible track of diminishing returns?

I recently learned that a big money developer from the mainland has his eyes on building another resort and shopping mall in the Hanamaulu area. Like we really need another resort. Like there’s so much business happening at Kukui Grove that we can support another competitive shopping mall only a few miles away! The EIS for this project nearly slipped by unnoticed when someone from the Sierra Club (God bless them) found out. They got a copy of the EIS and just one day before the deadline, the executive committee of the Sierra Club (after just having returned from a conference on Oahu) put aside their personal lives still another day and met to contribute their testimony to this EIS. Watch out for notices for community input meetings on this project. It is up to the citizens of Kauai to pay attention, take a stand and speak out to preserve the beauty and quality of life here. After the damage is done it will be too late!

As you know, Agriculture-zoned land laws are being twisted with local government permission to allow for luxury estates (eg: the famous Kealia Kai development) without any pretense even of agriculture being done. Is this really acceptable?

One of the many reasons I feel so fortunate and blessed to be living here on Kauai is that the quality of life here is so much calmer and sweeter. The spirit of Aloha is strong and the presence of Spirit is always within reach. Kauai has reached an important crossroads where decisions need to be made about how much development and expansion will be allowed and at what price. We must not let the market-driven economy lower our standards in the high quality of our rural life style here on Kauai. Before we know it we could forget how good it used to be because we have accommodated to how it has become.

The old-timer Hawaiians have not forgotten. They are very aware of how much of the old Hawaii has been changed and destroyed. But they have been as disenfranchised and un-empowered as has been the land itself to stand up and say NO.

We need to heed the fate of the once righteously ono tomato and make sure that we are maintaining the high standards quality calls for and not settling or accommodating to anything that is less. Don’t you agree?