Congratulations, as well, to your brother. Please let him know our family appreciates his service. We know it is a sacrifice.
That’s SO interesting about the “sad flavor” (haha) of things like tomatoes, melons, etc., grown in hot house or hoop house environments.
It’s GREAT to know, however, that root vegetables and cruciferous varieties are fabulous. For some reason, we cannot grow beets here no matter what we try. I may try ONE more time this autumn…
Love Monty Don, by the way! Good to know someone else watches him too.
Congratulations to your son! My brother just commissioned into the Marine Corps with an aviation contract, so he’ll be starting flight school soon, as well.
I live in western Oregon, but grew up partly in the Southeast US and partly in Germany. I have no idea if there’s a solid reason behind it, but in my opinion a tomato grown with full sun exposure has a sweeter, more intense flavor than any I’ve tried from a more controlled, hoop house environments in places with shorter growing seasons. The same goes for melons; I’ve yet to find a cantaloupe as good as the ones we had in the South.
I watched a Monty Don gardening episode in which he visits a center focused on developing aquaponics as a more efficient food growing system, and he touched on the same issue. Even with all the correct fertilizers and light exposure supposedly identical to sunlight, the tomatoes were sad and flavorless.
Cruciferous vegetables, root vegetables, and berries absolutely love it here, though. We’ve grown the most incredible cabbages with very little pest or disease issues!
Great article! This is such an important distinction to make. I’m also jealous of those gorgeous tomatoes; tomatoes grown in a hoop house just don’t taste the same, but that’s the only option for getting them to ripen where I live.
Hi Susanna — I’m glad you enjoyed the topic. In all honesty, while I knew that hybrids weren’t the same as GMOs for many years, it was only about two years ago that I learned the details of why. We avoid hybrids anyway because of the seeds.
Where do you live? I wonder why hoop house raised tomatoes don’t taste the same? We’re moving to acreage in Idaho sometime next year. Have to wait for the third son to finish flight school, get a place, etc. We’ll definitely be using hoop houses and many other techniques that we haven’t had to use here. It’ll be a sharp learning curve.
Good Lord! Is there no limit to the Bill Gates monkey business? He is funding so many horrible things in the world. You've just notified me of yet another one. Thank you, Gluck.
Hey Lawdog! Always so nice to see you in my comment section. Yes, there’s something awry with Gates besides just being a narcissistic, egoist with a savior complex. Honestly, I’m beginning to believe he’s not interested in actually SAVING anything. I read (several different sources) that he’s also planning to cut down something like 17million acres (I may be off on the number) of trees and bury them in underground chambers as a carbon offset. WT actual H???
Thank you. All is well here. I'm not spending much time online. I've been doing a lot of hiking and preparation for long, solo backpacking trips. 😉 I hope you and the family are well. 🤗
Congratulations, as well, to your brother. Please let him know our family appreciates his service. We know it is a sacrifice.
That’s SO interesting about the “sad flavor” (haha) of things like tomatoes, melons, etc., grown in hot house or hoop house environments.
It’s GREAT to know, however, that root vegetables and cruciferous varieties are fabulous. For some reason, we cannot grow beets here no matter what we try. I may try ONE more time this autumn…
Love Monty Don, by the way! Good to know someone else watches him too.
Congratulations to your son! My brother just commissioned into the Marine Corps with an aviation contract, so he’ll be starting flight school soon, as well.
I live in western Oregon, but grew up partly in the Southeast US and partly in Germany. I have no idea if there’s a solid reason behind it, but in my opinion a tomato grown with full sun exposure has a sweeter, more intense flavor than any I’ve tried from a more controlled, hoop house environments in places with shorter growing seasons. The same goes for melons; I’ve yet to find a cantaloupe as good as the ones we had in the South.
I watched a Monty Don gardening episode in which he visits a center focused on developing aquaponics as a more efficient food growing system, and he touched on the same issue. Even with all the correct fertilizers and light exposure supposedly identical to sunlight, the tomatoes were sad and flavorless.
Cruciferous vegetables, root vegetables, and berries absolutely love it here, though. We’ve grown the most incredible cabbages with very little pest or disease issues!
Great article! This is such an important distinction to make. I’m also jealous of those gorgeous tomatoes; tomatoes grown in a hoop house just don’t taste the same, but that’s the only option for getting them to ripen where I live.
Hi Susanna — I’m glad you enjoyed the topic. In all honesty, while I knew that hybrids weren’t the same as GMOs for many years, it was only about two years ago that I learned the details of why. We avoid hybrids anyway because of the seeds.
Where do you live? I wonder why hoop house raised tomatoes don’t taste the same? We’re moving to acreage in Idaho sometime next year. Have to wait for the third son to finish flight school, get a place, etc. We’ll definitely be using hoop houses and many other techniques that we haven’t had to use here. It’ll be a sharp learning curve.
Good Lord! Is there no limit to the Bill Gates monkey business? He is funding so many horrible things in the world. You've just notified me of yet another one. Thank you, Gluck.
Hey Lawdog! Always so nice to see you in my comment section. Yes, there’s something awry with Gates besides just being a narcissistic, egoist with a savior complex. Honestly, I’m beginning to believe he’s not interested in actually SAVING anything. I read (several different sources) that he’s also planning to cut down something like 17million acres (I may be off on the number) of trees and bury them in underground chambers as a carbon offset. WT actual H???
Excellent 👌👌👌
As always, thank you so much, Troy! I hope you've been well.
Thank you. All is well here. I'm not spending much time online. I've been doing a lot of hiking and preparation for long, solo backpacking trips. 😉 I hope you and the family are well. 🤗
That’s awesome! We love doing that very same thing. Share pics when you’re done, maybe?
Will do. 😉