PSA: reading this post may make you immediately go and check your tomatoes for a little-known feature I’m about to reveal…
In hindsight, I was always destined to be a problem-solver.
An untangler of knotty problems.
A niggler at complex issues.
Even when that problem is as commonplace as a tomato.
Many moons ago when I was waiting for my A-Level results, I made all the starters at a popular local restaurant.
Ok: many, *many moons ago.
It was a tedious job. Lots of prepping salad veg.
Even back then I had an inquisitive mind, always looking for optimisations.
And the tomatoes did not escape my attention.
I figured out that cutting them a certain way helped keep the seeds attached to the flesh.
Which makes for a better, more attractive garnish.
Less messy to eat, too.
But tomatoes are tricky things.
Not like peppers, which show you where to cut.
It’s hard to tell from the outside quite where the membranes are.
But I had time on my hands.
And thousands of tomatoes to experiment on.
Over the course of that summer, I learned a little-known fact.
There’s a tiny little scar on the base of every tomato.
Sometimes a cross; sometimes with just three arms.
And the membrane runs mid-way between them.
Jeez, what boredom does to a girl 😉