There is a whooooooooooole lotta venting here......%$#@ YEARS ago, we were all informed - by all the media - that we were soon going to have genetically altered foods. Produce was ALL genetically altered from the get-go. Tomatoes would have fish oil injected, weel, you got the picture. At first, it was shocking, but, since the world is growing so fast, they needed to have longer shelf-life for the items.
So - tomatoes LOOK like tomatoes - they do not smell, taste or feel like tomatoes; like all of the other items - green peppers? 4-GET-about it. BUT_______we have to shop at WM - and bought a few fruits TWO DAYS AGO and they are as fuzzy as can be. SO! Makes me wonder - why do we really have genetically altered foods?? Goes back to grow your own from heirloom seeds - they are the purest and allow us to really TASTE what we are eating!---------------WHEW! I am done - sorry to rant............................... :oops:

I agree with you. My mother grew alot of her own vegetables when I was growing up and it spoilt me. I cannot stand the taste of shop bought tomatoes or zucchini, so when we bought our own house the first thing we did was put in a vegetable garden. It's not all that big, but in summer it gives us a great supply of fresh vegetables that have not had any chemical sprays used on them. My kids love to go down to the vegie patch and pick fresh beans and peas, not many make it to the table but you couldn't have any fresher or anything better for them. I try to buy and fruit and vegies from our farmers market rather than the big supermarkets as it tastes so much better. We have since added a couple of chickens and we sometime make our own pasta from their eggs, the colour is fantastic. I hope I am passing on a love of real food to my children so they in turn can pass it on to theirs.

We (humans) have been genetically modifying our plant and animal foods, through selective breeding for thousands of years. Basically since we decided to live in cities and start growing crops instead of foraging for what grows wild.

Your fruit went bad most likely because it's been sitting around the store you purchased it for a long time - or on a truck or loading dock. Or in the back of the store where it wasn't refrigerated.

There is nothing like going out, picking your own vegetables and fruits, then eating them. I fixed roasted vegetables the Tuesday. Potatoes, squash and grape tomatoes from the garden, they were great. Toss in a nice marinated cucumber salad, YUM. The corn, beans, peas, peppers, onions, and okra will be in soon. I can't wait.

I know exactly what you mean. Fruit and veggies from the store are also picked green and "ripened" with gas. A lot of the fruits that we grew up with, like peaches, didn't or don't stand up to shipping, so they don't grow them anymore. If you want decent tasting fruits and veggies, I guess you have to grow them yourselves or find someone who does.

I saw a program the other day that explained that the tomatoes were genetically altered (hybrids) to have thicker skin and to be harder so they don't squish in transport. I put all the tomatoes I buy on the windowsill and wait a few days. Usually, they'll become softer, redder and sweeter. Don't know about bell peppers because I don't eat them. As for the fruit. We've had that problem but I believed it's because we've moved to the high desert and getting good fruit here is almost impossible. However, later I bought some fruit at a different store that lasted for over a week. I'd talk to the manager of the store where you shop and explain you're unhappy with the shelf life of their fruit. Or do like I did, search out another store. The first year here, our local store tried to sell yellow summer squash for $.79 a lb (it was $.10 a lb where I came from). The squash they were selling was old, wrinkled and should have been in the garbage bin. I talked to the produce guy, then the manager and got the same story...."gee, is there something wrong with it?". I quit shopping at that store.

This is why I do most of my shopping at a near by farm They even raise gras fed beed, chickens, turkeys, pork. a long with vegies and fruits.

We have a garden, too. I do not like weeding it, but I do enjoy the veggies.

I can't have a garden where I live but my DM has one and I got some fresh chili pepper this morn. Gonna make a pot of chili beans today. I wish we could have a garden because I would have everything growing in it. I prefer fresh veggies.

cjomomma, do you have room for a few large pots? I grow my lettuce and spinachin pots, for less weeds. I know people whohave alot in pots.....just have to water alot more!

we have an indoor garden, it's 14X24, the beds are waist high. it was finished a bit late for this spring but we do have a nice bed of tomatoes and when fall gets here we'll plant lots of fall veggies. before we had bugs, cows, dogs and birds that got 90% of what we planted, now they get to eat or destroy any of it! I have a wonderful hard working husband.

It is so refreshing to hear your opinions, and that at least a few of us are thinking along the same lines! yes! wOODY - HAVING fresh FARM EGGS IS WONDERFUL! The free range have darker yokes and taste sooo good! The ones from the store look anemic! No flavor!
Ha Pam who DOES like weeding?? This year the weather has been NOT condusive for planting here - we just have potatoes, tomatoes and peppers growing. Why do weeds flourish and veggies look stunted??
cjmomma - I KNOW you MUST have had a garden where you moved FROM! and Carrie - good suggestion - POT PLANT! (that is IN pots)........
Kathy - INDOOR garden - where indoors do you have it?

Unfortunalely our apt manager frowns on such things. We have a big enough back porch but they tell us no. You would think they would encourage low income families to do this inorder to save money. I just don't get it.

I have my tomatoes, green peppers, yellow beans, corn and onions in big pots. you can even grow them in hanging baskets too.

my potatoes are in a huge pot.

I go to the farmers market or my SIL does and we pick up fresh from these farmers. Tomatoes are delicious....

We have an aquaponics system in our backyard - well, side yard... fish in tanks, use the water to hydroponically grow veggies. The difference in taste of store bought and home grown is so outrageously different... I find it hard to buy ANY vegetables in the store now - though we don't grow all. One day we will. I'm waiting to put in a soil garden - in time... we do have a small one - but I want a HUGE one... always had them as I was growing up.

thismomquilts, could you share more info about your aquaponics? This is something I could really be interested in! Do you harvest your fish as well? Please share.

cjomamma, you can't tell him you are beautifying the patio? (Decorate your pots so they don't look so bad. My daughter loved to paint clay pots with decorations. PM me if you don't know how.) We plant herbs in our flowerbeds by the front door and they look a whole lot nicer than some of the scraggly flowers a few of my neighbors are trying. We also grow some things in nicer pots out front. Our neighbors are always talking about how nice the flower Beds look. I always want to laugh because the only reason some of the flowers are planted around the edges are because they are "deer resistant" (hah!, suckers will eat anything that doesn't get them first). Oh yeah, and the swallowtail butterflies are using the parsley and dill to lay eggs. The caterpillers are pigs, but the trade off is great (encouraging pollinators into the garden).

You could try small, grow some herbs in your windowsill and go from there. You might look to see if there is a community garden project in your neighborhood. If there's not, maybe go to the city council and recommend they start one. Everyone benefits with things like this. We can never use all that we grow and tell neighbors to come harvest what they need of the herbs. Maybe your apt. manager hasn't been shown pictures of really gorgeous landscaping that is edible. He might be willing to let you try it somewhere obscure if you promise to tend to it. There is a program in Austin that started doing that with a grant (I think. PM me if you are interested and I'll try to find the information and send it to you. I know there used to be grants available to communities who start community gardens and have ideas and programs already put together to make it as easy as possible for people to start. All it takes to grow something useful is a 6 inch pot and a window. Oh, yeah, and my husband. I have the botanical know-how but a black thumb. I swear he can grow something from planting a broom handle in the ground.) Hope this gives you some ideas. Everyone should be able to garden if they want to.

Wow, I want to try the aquaponics thing. It sounds interesting. We're using a modified square foot garden model at the moment. I wonder what my Mom would say if I told her I had aquariums. She thought our solar dryer was something expensive until she realized it was a clothesline. I got a good laugh over that one because I had a solar dryer in college and she thought I had gotten something really high tech.

I was using the solar clothes drier earlier today, does not work so great in the rain, so in they came.

Thank you lab fairy for the ideas. I might try something and see what I can get away with. I love to garden maybe when hubby finishes college we can get a house, he has 3 semesters left. I can't wait til he is done.

My son lived in an apartment where the people above him had the whole balcony covered with potted flowers. When they watered they soaked their balcony and my sons space. Sitting out in chairs was a dangerous activity. The watering also wasn't good for the construction. That may be one of the reasons why your manager does not allow plants on the balcony.

I agree with starting with herbs on the windowsill. First of all they smell wonderful and second they taste wonderful in cooking. It might help your yearnings for a veggie garden.

I little on the bottom so that shouldn't be a problem. Plus it rains so much here that I don't think watering would hurt anything. I did put a small pot out for flowersa that Janice sent to me and so far there hasn't been any complaints. So I might give it a try. If they say remove it then I will just take it to my Mom's.

I have not had a tasty cantalope in a few years. No taste at all. The one I bought grown locally had a little taste, but not near what my taste buds remember.

I would love to have fresh veggies, tomatoes from the store taste like plastic. I wish I could find a stand that had tomatoes, corn, cukes, green peppers, and good watermelon. Going to Ky next month, maybe I can find a good watermelon there. IT seems like the stands that used to be around are gone.

I love to shop at the farmers market here. Lovely fresh grown eats.

stitchinwitch, I'm so glad you started this!!! Many of us feel as you do.
I REFUSE to eat tomatoes unless they are in season and I buy them from farmers and we grow our own as well.
A good replacement for those awful tomatoes is fruit. My Mom used to cut up oranges and put in salads and I still do (so does she!) That was long before restaurants did it!! Lots of fruits taste great in a salad.
We only buy free-range chickens and eggs, beef. As much as we can we are going organic. Costs more but I'd rather eat better than spend the money elsewhere :)
I also pick dandelion greens in the yard- they are so nutritious !!
All my neighbors have perfect lawns but us.......... :D

And they wonder why cancer is so abundant now adays! We have a veggie gardent too, but it has shrunk considerably this year. Hubby had back surgery and I'm never home.

I haven't eaten a cantalope sense we left Ca. I miss the fresh veggies and fruits we used to get from the road side stands. We used to buy 2 10lb. bags of fresh oranges for 5 bucks. Oh and the fresh strawberries. I miss them all. I will say that is about all that I miss about Ca.

Oh YES YES YES!! Those strawberries are the LARGEST, SWEETEST berries in the US. The navel oranges were the best when there was a freeze, and they couldn't sell them to the retailers. BUT they would sell them off the side of the road and were JUICY, SWEET, and B-I-G!

DH and I took a little drive and someone was selling cantaloup and tomatoes - and they SMELLED like they were suppose to! Yum Yum!

My DM and DF just got home(DF is a truck driver) they brought fresh peaches home. They smell so yummy, they gave me some to take home.

I can't wait for my garden to start producing. Here, in Wisconsin, we don't plant until Memeorial weekend so it will be a while yet, but we will see corn, tomatos, cucumbers and more from the truck farms in the southern part of the state in another 3 or 4 weeks. I can't wait. Give me these things from the garden and I am in heaven. Don't need anything else.

I grow herbs in wash tubs. They do great.

Wow, our "first garden" of the year is just about played out. We'll be planting our fall garden at the beginning of August. My herbs in the flower bed actually froze for the first time in two years (We actually saw enough snow to make a snowman. I know to some this sounds dumb, but for those of us in the south, its a big deal.) Every so often we have to make what I call our "hillbilly hot house" (to tease my husband) which is basically covering the plants with a clear plastic and using rocks to hold down the edges. Our plants are cooking in the heat right now, I envy those of you in cooler climates. It was 100 degrees on my back porch (in the shade) today.

This year is the first year my friend has planted in straw bales! WOW - the plants grew about 6 inches in 1 week! No weeds, neat and gorgeous. On the other hand my garden looks like a forest. Weeds - not veggies! On the way home this afternoon we stopped at this one country house that we have been admiring his garden for about 3 years every spring. I just HAD to ask him his secret - he always has an EARLY garden - vegetables are about 3 feet tall by March! Heck, we aren't suppose to plant until Mid May - HA! Anyway, he says he uses cow manure - every fall, he adds it and tills it in. soooooooooooo "wait until NEXT year" HA!

Stitch, one thing about using manure is you will get more weeds. We put down newspaper then mulch on top of that. Keeps the weeds at bay. We also water one time a year with a mixture of water, regular cocacola and amonia. You only use it once otherwise you get all leaves and no veggies. But if you use it once, the stuff just about jumps out of the ground! It is one regular bottle of coke, 1/2 cup amonia and 5 gallons of water. Water everything really good. We also swear by miricle grow. We water with that about once a month. Between it all, we end up with a pretty good garden.

We used to mulch all our gardens with wheat straw (I don't live close enough to get easy access anymore). We don't use ammonia down here, our house is on limestone which is already so basic (alkaline). If you use organic gardening practices in my area, you'd use apple cider vinegar. Some people will use black strap molasses, etc.

My brother-in-law is a horticulturist (degree and all). He says to test your soil. Talk to your county extension agency, a lot of people don't know they even have one. I sure didn't until I married into a farmboy's family. Some soils are low in nitrogen, phosphorus, or potassium (NPK). Those three things are listed on commercial fertilizers in that order like 34-0-0, etc.

I don't know where you found food like that, I sure have never came across any like that. All the fruits and veggies I buy taste as good as ever and that is real good. My tastebuds must not be as acute as yours, I use to grow my own tomatoes and couldn't tell the difference. I will continue to buy them and enjoy them.

Honey - you have some good ideas. We were laying down sheets of newspaper in our garden and that darn wind would lift it up and blow them across the road - until we forgot about it.(It felt like an "I Love Lucy" scene---this was doing only ONE sheet at a time!
Coke and ammonia?? Could I use the sudsy ammonia? I will definitely have to try that. Do I do that in the spring or fall? Thanks
Thanks everyone for sharing tips and experiences - Maybe one day, we will ALL NEED TO grow our own and to have all of this information is priceless.