There won’t be any photos in this post, sadly, as I have dropped my camera and broken the zoom so it’s off being fixed. That said, if we’re honest I wouldn’t actually have taken any photos of what I ate today because the tastiness was entirely unexpected. Actually, I was expecting it to be tasty- better to say I wasn’t expecting it to be so outstandingly delicious. I had begun to make my lunch in our jaffle iron, one of my pastie inventions such as Breakfast Jaffle-Pie but it was something much more simple this time- one with smoked ham and mushrooms, and the other with smoked ham and tiny tomatoes. It wasn’t worth taking photos because it wasn’t out of the ordinary, just a lazy lunch after uni. I munched my way through the mushroom one, then moved on to the tomatoes, and oh! The unspeakable bliss with that first mouthful! The tomato flavour burst into my mouth in an explosion of deliciousness! These were clearly no ordinary tiny toms.
When I began making the jaffle I knew that there was a Child of the Compost tiny tom fruiting in the backyard, but there were a couple of punnets of shop-bought ones in the fridge, so I decided to do the virtuous thing and finish those first. I did just that. What I hadn’t realised was that my father had been picking the fruit as the ripened and popping them into an old punnet from the shop bought ones, thus what I had actually consumed were home grown tomatoes.
In that moment I realised that shop bought tomatoes will never cut it, and I knew I had to make this post urging you that if you ever grow anything yourself, make it tomatoes. I’m sure other people have said it, I’m saying it again now. Tiny toms in particular are stupidly easy to grow; they fruit like crazy, will grow very successfully from seed and breed fairly true, and the taste is utterly unlike anything you buy. The difference is beyond belief. As soon as I took that first mouthful of jaffle I knew the tomatoes couldn’t have come from a shop, and it was a delight to have a fairly ordinary lunch turned into a gourmet delight. Possibly you can get them with flavour like that at markets, I wouldn’t know, Arwen is the market-goer in the family 
Seriously though, growing your own tomatoes is one of the most worthwhile food plants you will ever grow. Shop bought ones are watery with very little flavour, and all you need to grow your own taste sensation is a little soil, water and sunlight. Do it people! Then you can spring surprises on friends and family too with the utterly unexpected and sensational taste of a proper, home grown tomato.
Arwen
12 May 2010
What a wonderful surprise to find homegown tomatoes in disguise! It sounds like they taste beautiful, and to have them spring up from the compost is extra lucky.
Lorraine @ Not Quite Nigella
12 May 2010
Couldn’t agree more!. Tomatoes are the first thing I’d grow! Sorry to hear about your camera!
Conor @ HoldtheBeef
13 May 2010
Excellent post! So true, and I’m glad you found out that they were indeed little garden babies lest you started to think such deliciousness could be found at the supermarket and began a vain hunt to try and find them again!
Hope the camera is fixed with minimal fuss and cost.
Anita
13 May 2010
Our home grown tomatoes weren’t great this year
Fingers crossed for next year.
Maria@TheGourmetChallenge
13 May 2010
I must admit I’m a pretty terrible gardener, but I can actually grow tomatoes, so totally agree with you on that point
Reemski
16 May 2010
I hope one day to have a little patch of my own to attempt to grow tasty treats like tomatoes and herbs. I always feel stupidly ripped off when I have to buy herbs from the shop
Forager
17 May 2010
I wanted to grow my own tomatoes on our balcony but got vetoed. Apparently my growing Bonsai graveyard makes me a bad potential tomato grower. That and on Costa’s garden we heard you need warm temperatures and acidic soil for optimum tomatoes. The Co-pilot doesn’t think I’m up to it. Shame
Arfi
18 May 2010
i always believe that homegrown plants are much superior in flavour rather than shop-bought ones. especially when you grow them with love and care–pesticide-free, rather than boost them up with chemical so they look bigger.