The Tomato Which Wouldn’t Rot

A mass of sprouted seeds and shoots covered in tomato gunk.
(Click for more…)

Earlier today I had to go to the ER because my foot was hurting. It was amazing. The result was that this mass of stuff was cut out of the bottom of my big toe. I can’t really walk right now, but… this is a lie. ;)

Actually, that photo is part of the result of a rather interesting experiment. About a month ago I purchased some tomatoes. To give you some idea of how long ago, I don’t really remember when they were purchased.

Anyway, I had two leftover tomatoes sitting on the counter and after a week they both formed some small bumps on them, almost like something was pushing out from under the surface. Cutting the first one open I found that some of the seeds had begun to sprout, so I decided to let the other be. I’d regularly set it in a place where sun through the skylight would shine on it, and generally just let it sit. About a week and a half ago the one of the shoots had finally punctured the skin of the fruit and it all was beginning dramatically soften.

Still, it hadn’t rotted. Taste tests during dissection showed that the pulp of the tomato was still very tomato-like, only lacking a bit of the normal sweetness and flavor which generally comes with a tomato. I figure that this was because a bunch of the sugars and such were used up by the germinating seeds.

At this point I decided it would be best to dissect the tomato, and that one above is part of what I found. The rest of the photos can be found here, in an album entitled The Tomato Which Wouldn’t Rot (photo gallery retired). These include:

· The tomato before I went poking around in it.
· Upon initially breaking the tomato open.
· A bunch of the sprouted bits on a paper towel.
· The leftover tomato-y remains. This is the part I tasted.
· The base of the stem, where something which looks like roots had begun to appear.
· Detail of the root-like mass at the base of the stem.

So, yeah. Definitely check out the whole gallery for The Tomato Which Wouldn’t Rot (photo gallery retired) if you’d like to see more photos. And yes, it’s now in the trash. Not that it was beginning to smell or anything, I just wanted it gone.

Irradiation or something is likely to blame for the lack of rotting, I think. Or maybe my house is just especially clean.

I doubt the latter.