A Folk Story Vindicated

Tomatoes are usually disappointing these days.

I remember a time when eating a tomato was a treat, but these days they are usually insipid. That's partly the varieties that are grown commercially. Home grown tomatoes of varieties not on the official list are often better, but I think there's more to it than that.

I try to reduce my salt consumption these days and had stopped sprinkling salt on salads. When I did add a little one day, the flavour of the tomatoes was transformed.

That reminded me of a folk story about a man who stupidly asked his daughters how much they loved him. Feeling unable to compete with her sisters' superlatives, the last daughter to reply said, with the perverse obscurity with which people in folk stories often confuse each other, 'I love you as the fresh meat loves the salt'

She was banished from the house for that, and only reinstated after she somehow infiltrated her way into the kitchen and cooked a salt free meal, the consumption of which shocked her father into an appreciation of her wisdom.

I suspect that that story is no longer part of the primary school curriculum, though if I were a primary school teacher I'd consider reinstating it.