Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1889-09-07
TOMATOES WEIRD AND STRANGE.


A tall, thin man, with q straw hat, unusually
large ears and gig-lamps, was strolling along by
the railing of the Smithsonian park, opposite
the markets, yesterday, when he came 10 .
sudden pause before an aged colored person,
who stood guard over big basketful Of yellow
and red vegetables, resembling plums some
what in size and appearance.
what are those, pray2" asked he.
'Dese is picking tomatoes, sah," replied the
negro.
Tomatoes! Well declare, never should
have guessed it. We don't have any tomatoes
like those in the north, where I come from.
How the folks up in Connecticut would stare il
they could see 'em! The only tomatoes we
know about up there are the common round
red kind"
Don't you have no grape tomatoes, sak?"
Grape tomatoes! No. What's them?"
Little tomatoes that grows in punches like
that grow like cherries on stems and pear to-
oh dem, sah?'
Mary one. nor heard of them nuther. Are
they all good to eat2"
"They's not much fer eatin', sab; but make
powerful good pickles. Nebber see none Of
EN- in pickle jar?"
NOT 70 know EN-. any way. notice the fell
low that keeps shop next to you has basketful
OF the Christian sort of tomatoes I'm used to. ~
',ies, sab. Denis berry good eatin'; and fer
maxim wine most specially
Wine! Come now, you're stufing me.
toes!"
Fac, sab. Tomatoes makes berry nice wine
Lots OBJ people in dis part OBJ de country put il
up. It's easy made; you squeeze all de juice Out
OF de vegetubble and stand it away to famment.
Den you bottle 1t and it's ready to drink
Il want to know, Guess I'll have ter spring
that on the folks when git home and kinder
suggest that perhaps we'd better have our to-
mato ketchup in the shape of wine this year. "
PICKLINa TOMATOES.
pickle manufacturer in the market said to
STAR reporter, who had been so ill-bred as to
listen to the above conversation, that the pick
ling tomatoes in question were of course, the
ordinary egg tomatoes, which are not known a;
all farther north. No New Highlander could
ever guess what they were; he would as quickly
suppose them beets as tomatoes. Grape toma-
toes and other distinctive varieties familiar
hereabout though unknown in latitudes but
little north OF this, were chiefly used for
pickles, the pickle man averred. He thought
they were Indigenous to the soil of Virginia and
Maryland growing wild in many places, and
that they were not an imported vegetable from
other lands.
Apart from tomatoes, the pickle manufac.
turer said, the staple vegetables for picking
were the small green cucumber-that the
chiefest of all-the caulifower, the silver-skir
onion, the green pepper and the red cab.
bage. Then there was also the s'martino, >
which looks in pickle jar most temptingly
like picked mouse with long tail; The
whole principle of picking appears to be frs
soak in salt and water and then a soak in
vinegar. First take your pepper, for example
and disembowel it, as it were; in other words
take out the inside. Then fill it with mix.
ture, previously prepared, OF chopped-up cab
bage, picked cucumbers beans, tomatoes and
spiced onions Then tie it up and let it lie one
| night in brine strong enough to float an egg
The next morning put it in vinegar and let il
remain there for ten days, at the end of which
| 1t will be as good a picked pepper as Peter
Piper himself ever picked Some vegetable,
require for picking longer time in the brine
than others. An onion, for instance, ought t.
have six months. This is the general plar
upon which pickles are turned out for the
market. Pittsburg is great place for manu-
featuring them,