"Chicken Poop Tomatoes" -- Best Ever!

Several years ago, my sister, Paula Dukes, planted a tomato garden in her North Carolina backyard.  She had a coop full of chickens, and decided to use their droppings as fertilizer for the garden.  The tomatoes she grew that year were some of the best ever. 

Several years later, I met my husband, Jeff, online, and moved to California.  Frustrated with the waxy grocery store tomatoes, I told him about the tomatoes Paula had grown.  I told him how home grown tomatoes may not look as pretty as the grocery store varieties, but they sure do taste better. 

"She put chicken poop on them?" he asked me.

"Well, not on the tomatoes.  On the ground where, the plants were growing - like fertilizer," I explained.

"I don't know about that?  I think I like mine from the store just fine."

At a trip to a farmer's market a few weeks later, I showed Jeff what I meant about the tomatoes.  They had free samples, so we could taste them.  We walked over and began looking at the tomatoes.

"But, there's all kinds of little bites and marks.  Are you sure they're okay?"  City Boy, I mean Jeff asked. 

"Yes, that just means they've been in a real garden!  Try it!"  I handed him a piece and took one too.

"Not too bad," He replied.  "But is it a 'Chicken Poop Tomato'?"

I laughed.  "Not quite, but it will do!" 

Ever since, when we see homegrown tomatoes, inevitably, one of us will ask, "Is it a Chicken Poop Tomato?"  We moved back to North Carolina in 2004 and Jeff even asked Paula that when she served some tomatoes.  The answer was a laughing "No - but those were really good tomatoes!" 

So, if you are going to grow some tomatoes this year, and have a chicken coop - try adding a little chicken poop!  Best ever!