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Published Sunday, November 20, 2011 in Opinion

Tough customers

By Alex McRae

The Newnan Times-Herald

The Romans built a huge fleet to move people and stuff between ports and constructed an empire-wide network of roads so carefully engineered they are still walked by tourists today.

The Romans also set records in the slave trade that still stand. Nobody's perfect.

You wonder how they did it all. I think I know. When he was trying to build his own empire, the late, great Napoleon Bonaparte noted that global conquest wasn't a walk in the park. And it wasn't just a matter of having the best weapons money could buy. Soldiers had to have the strength to use them.

Napoleon is reported to have said that "an army travels on its stomach." He knew that keeping food flowing to the troops was critical to military success.

The Romans clearly knew it, too. And they had at least one superfood guaranteed to keep an army rolling virtually forever. The proof is in my back yard, where a Roma tomato plant is still thriving long after its American cousins gave up the ghost.

Last spring, a nice lady showed me a new home gardening method and I jumped at it. Instead of tilling my backyard, I plopped down 25 bales of wheat straw, dumped some potting soil on top and planted my veggies in their swell new straw beds.

It was a snap. I just watered the bales for a few days, loaded them up with nitrogen and fertilizer, set out the plants and got out of the way. No weeding, no raking, no problem. Straw bale farming was made for me.

The plants liked it, too. OK, that's an understatement. They loved it. Especially the tomatoes.

I allocated eight bales for tomatoes. I planted many different varieties, including Beefsteak, Early Girl and several of the "Boys," like "Big Boy," "Better Boy," "Bad Boy" "Tom Boy" and "Mama's Boy." I also planted three different varieties of Roma tomatoes, thinking that if, nothing else, they'd be swell on salads.

The spring passed, the summer came, the heat rose and my baled veggies burst forth like green bombs. I was stunned.

I'd never seen anything like it. I got so tired of picking squash, cucumbers, peppers and tomato after tomato after tomato that by the end of July I quit watering and waited for the plants to die. One by one, they obliged. Except for one Roma tomato plant, which is still bearing fruit.

Those Romas are definitely the gladiators of my garden. And they're not just tough, they're tasty.

It didn't take long to learn that sliced Roma tomatoes are just as good in sandwiches as their bigger buddies. Even after two "official" backyard frosts, I am still eating fresh homegrown tomato sandwiches while mortals shop for second-rate substitutes.

What a treat. And what a wonderful secret weapon for roaming Roman armies always in need of good eats. In fact, if the Roman army chefs kept plenty of mayonnaise and bread on hand, tomato sandwiches alone would have been a great recruiting tool.

The Roman Empire may be gone, but as long as Roma tomatoes ripen in Georgia in November, the Romans will be fondly remembered at my place. Especially at meal time.

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(Send your e-mail comments to: alex@newnan.com )

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