Tomato,Tomata

I miss tomatoes. They are the best fruit/veggie out there. They make delicious salsa. They are a yummy snack. A sandwich is nothing without these red friends. Salad is just lettuce if tomatoes aren't adorning the top. When you are a vegetarian, tomatoes are 25% of your diet. With the recent salmonella tomato scare, I find my life tomatoless. What is a girl to do? Well, I cry about it and then rant about how much I hate salmonella.

According to the CDC, "Salmonella can enter tomato plants through roots or flowers and can enter the tomato fruit through small cracks in the skin, the stem scar, or the plant itself." Lovely. Salmonella can cause abdominal pain, nausea, diarrhea, and could possibly bring about typhoid fever and paratyphoid fever. So...obviously it should be avoided at all costs. But how do you avoid it when you don't eat meat, eggs, or, in general, many animal products (where salmonella is usually found) and yet it still pops up in vegetables! Which should be SAFE! I'm telling you, friends, this sucks.