You would seem like the man to ask........
1) Where did all yellow sweet corn run off to? Everything is bi-colour these days. Appearances aside...... my memory of fresh on or off-cob corn from childhood may be betraying me, as these things do, but I swear the Ontario yellow corn of my childhood was just a bit sweeter/richer in flavour and it used to come off the cob in big chunks of 10, 12 or more kernels......
2) Similar memory with beefsteak field tomatoes. Juicier, riper, more full-on tomato flavour, just great fresh sliced with salt and freshly cracked black pepper!
I should note here, lots of produce types have held their own or improved, crop variety is better, and I do love to and grow my own stuff.
But...those two above I remember as being more enjoyable than what I find today even at the farmer's market.
3) Bonus question: Why are Fresno Peppers so hard to find in Ontario? They are one of the most popular state-side.
Thanks in advance for any insights.
1. Bi-colour is popular with consumers to begin with, and yields more per acre as well, making it a fav amongst producers. You can find excellent yellow sweet corn, there are some very good growers out of the Simcoe area. You may need to source the market or a better grocery store. A little general info on corn at the bottom of the page.
2. Beefsteak. I share your memories, but have strayed away from growing them myself. I grabbed this as the writer summarizes the issues well:
“The tomatoes you’ll find year-round in the grocery store are hybrids, which means that humans have cultivated and bred them for specific characteristics. Not all hybrids are bad, but the grocery-store ones usually are; they’re bred for resistance to diseases, firm flesh, thick skin, and storage potential, rather than, say, flavor. They’re also yanked from their plants while they’re still hard as rocks so that they don’t get crushed on the way to their final destination. Off the vine, they can’t develop the sugars, acids, and other flavor/aroma chemicals that make them actually taste good—so they’re sprayed with ethylene gas instead, which induces reddening and softening. The result: watery, cottony pucks.”
This may be an over exaggeration of what you find, but the breeding for genetic specifics is often done at the expense of flavour, texture….all those attributes that used to run down your chin.
3. Fresno Peppers. You are speaking of the hot chili pepper, up to 5,000 or so Scoville units. OMAFRA tech bulletins do not seem to indicate any special issues with growing. We have not done so to date hmmmmmm, maybe next year. I can only think that word of their popularity south of the border has not really made an impact on the larger and more commercial growers, I.e. reached their ears. Or they may feel it’s more of a specialty crop with limited reach. And in truth if you look at the volumes of sweet peppers grown vs any other……
I’ll post this but may edit as well.
Feeding the 8.1 billion people in the world is going to require some give and take in the qualities of the fruit, veg and grains that we consume. Genetics has played a huge role and will continue to do so. That dreaded phrase, factory farming, is not going anywhere. Farming conglomerates, like Cargill, which are a pox on farmers, serve a role that governments have not filled, and help drive production. But there are limits in Canada to production, where the supply of fertile farmland is low, only 3.2% of our landmass can produce crops, and only 0.5% is considered Class 1 farmland (And Doug is busy paving that over as fast as he can MZO and produce highway projects) Food security in Canada should be a topic with a higher profile. There should be greater protections on farm lands to prevent estate creation - the 5,000 ft sq brick and stucco marble monstrosity surrounded by 5 acres of mown grass. Not to mention illegal trucking sites and the like. The Green Belt/Agriculture Belt should be expanded, created and protected.
The cure to all of these question’s for you, is to acquire 5 acres somewhere of decent land, a decent shed or garage unit on site, water, and a small tractor that can handle a tiller, and a couple of other implements, and go to town. There are very good seed sources in Canada for volume purchases. You need time, loads of energy, and the ability to find unholy joy in looking at that first crop of the year poking up (rhubarb), and then a lot of friends to consume your supply of beefsteak tomatoes as they begin to ripen….in a hurry.
When we were younger we disliked immensely the tasks and time needed to keep the farm garden in working order. Now, more then a few years later, getting off a tractor, or out of the car, and walking into the garden to pick for dinner is a true, true pleasure. When I lived in Downtown Toronto, going to the market gave you much the same pleasure, especially if you knew it came from Ontario.
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