243 LYCOPERSICUM

I truly love living in Florida! I know, I know – most of you think it is too hot, although about as hot as it gets here is the mid-90’s and that is not much different than where most of you live. In fact, some of you have been in the triple digits this year eclipsing records that have remained unchallenged for well above fifty years - records you never really wanted to see broken – but it never gets over a hundred here. I thoroughly enjoy the fact that, with the exception of possibly 30 days or so, it is genuinely enjoyable to be outdoors the majority of the year. You adapt to what constitutes ‘hot’ and pick your times to be exposed to the direct sunshine, employ the regular and consistent application of sun-block with high SPF ratios and plan your landscape and maintenance duties for the latest or earliest parts of the day – you just get used to it!! Most of us have pools and are able to swim in them for greater than six months – I love that!! After traveling this past week to visit Mom and Carlos in central southern Illinois, however, I have come to the stark realization that there are a few things that are more perfect in the mid-west than here in Crackerland, namely, tomatoes, corn-on-the-cob, tomatoes, melon, tomatoes, cucumbers, tomatoes, and, did I mention tomatoes? The flavor, the texture, the deep, rich redness of the Illinois Solanum Lycopersicum is truly unparalleled in any of the similar produce that we harvest here in the Deep South – their tomatoes are just hands down better than any like fruit we can even get here – some of you may think I made a mistake and, instead, should have said ‘vegetable’, but check it out for yourself - yup, tomatoes are fruit!

This blog is posted on:

http://www.rlarrison.blogspot.com http://www.myspace.com/rlarrison http://www.linkedin.com/in/rlarrison