site banner
PaperclipPerfector  5d ago (text post)   2925 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for January 9, 2026

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

2
Top Bottom Old Controversial Comments
Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

In fact, growing tasty tomatoes is not a huge task. It's entirely possible to do this on one's own backyard. Maybe not the best tomatoes on the planet, but great ones that beat anything you buy in the grocery store so much there's not even any comparison. And tomato is one of those plants which once it starts producing, there's no stopping it. Which may be why the store ones are not as good - they are optimized for mass production, preservation and remote delivery - making a fruit that survives this journey is much different business than making a fruit that is going to be picked up and consumed within hours.

In fact, growing tasty tomatoes is not a huge task.

What is unfortunately a huge task is growing tasty tomatoes, while - at the same time - making them fully machine-harvestable and giving them long shelf life while being tossed around in boxes and by customers in the produce section. Which is the actual reason large parts of Italy had access to excellent tomatoes - they still hand-picked a significant fraction of their tomatoes.

Notice the past-tense used above. Supermarket tomatoes in Italy today taste like anywhere else. From my informal data gathering, I'd guess they mostly faded out hand-picked heirloom varieties around 2010. Same is true for a lot of other "soft" produce, too. Peaches, plums, ect. now taste like everywhere else.

Farmers markets and restaurant suppliers still have the good stuff, though. The Italians additionally still grow a lot of heirloom varieties.

It's entirely possible to do this on one's own backyard.

Your backyard may vary. Rabbits and mice sneak under my fences easily, which I think explains why, although I can get tomato plants to grow like giant weeds, their fruits tend to vanish on me almost immediately after ripening, before I can pick them myself.

That happened to us with some things too. One year we lost almost all the cherries to fruit flies, another year squashes were all eaten... But somehow in our quarters, nobody is eating the tomatoes so far.

Salsa with ingredients straight from your garden you made yourself is life changing. Still prefer the high end canned stuff for my sauce though.

What is this place?

This website is a place for people who want to move past shady thinking and test their ideas in a court of people who don't all share the same biases. Our goal is to optimize for light, not heat; this is a group effort, and all commentators are asked to do their part.

The weekly Culture War threads host the most controversial topics and are the most visible aspect of The Motte. However, many other topics are appropriate here. We encourage people to post anything related to science, politics, or philosophy; if in doubt, post!

Check out The Vault for an archive of old quality posts. You are encouraged to crosspost these elsewhere.


Why are you called The Motte?

A motte is a stone keep on a raised earthwork common in early medieval fortifications. More pertinently, it's an element in a rhetorical move called a "Motte-and-Bailey", originally identified by philosopher Nicholas Shackel. It describes the tendency in discourse for people to move from a controversial but high value claim to a defensible but less exciting one upon any resistance to the former. He likens this to the medieval fortification, where a desirable land (the bailey) is abandoned when in danger for the more easily defended motte. In Shackel's words, "The Motte represents the defensible but undesired propositions to which one retreats when hard pressed."

On The Motte, always attempt to remain inside your defensible territory, even if you are not being pressed.


New post guidelines

If you're posting something that isn't related to the culture war, we encourage you to post a thread for it. A submission statement is highly appreciated, but isn't necessary for text posts or links to largely-text posts such as blogs or news articles; if we're unsure of the value of your post, we might remove it until you add a submission statement. A submission statement is required for non-text sources (videos, podcasts, images).

Culture war posts go in the culture war thread; all links must either include a submission statement or significant commentary. Bare links without those will be removed.

If in doubt, please post it!


Rules


Recommended Posts And Communities

Recommended Realtime Chats