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Back to Menu Hill-reared Tomatoes! By Neale McQuistin for Friday’s Standard 20th August 2010. It is at this time of year that I make my annual pilgrimage over the regional border into South Ayrshire to attend Colmonell Show. This year I was really looking forward to the trip because it would give me an opportunity to cast my eye over what is considered to be a prime site for growing tomatoes. It seems that the hills above New Luce are soon to be to tomato growing what the Girvan coast is to New Tatties! If you have never been on the road between New Luce and Barrhill let me describe it to you. It’s a single track road, with passing places, which climbs up into heather clad hills that eventually gives way to thousands of acres of conifer trees. Ray Mears would find it hard to survive up there but apparently tomatoes will thrive and prosper. And the key to their survival is the heat that will be generated by incinerating thousands and thousands of tonnes of industrial waste from the Central Belt of Scotland. Before any of you start jumping to the wrong conclusion let me assure you that the wealth creators from the Central Belt have not just sought out the most remote spot they could find to burn their dangerous rubbish. It’s because they care about us down here in the South West. Why should they feel the need to hide their incinerator away in a forest and truck their waste a hundred miles south before they set a match to it? After all these ‘energy from waste’ plants are perfectly safe and there is no danger whatsoever to human health or to the environment. In fact it was claimed at a recent meeting, to introduce the scheme to the locals, that the whole process will actually improve the ambient air quality in the immediate vicinity of the plant! How generous is that? Instead of building the incinerator close to one of the larger cities in the Central Belt and using the energy to heat their hospitals, schools or municipal swimming pools they are helping us down here by improving our air quality and producing tomatoes. The tomato eating populations of New Luce and Barrhill, that number several hundreds, are really looking forward to tasting the first of the crop. Apart from the delicious taste of the rosy red fruit there is a chemical in tomatoes called Lycopene. Lycopene is a vital anti-oxidant that helps in the fight against cancerous cell formation as well as other kinds of health complications and diseases. Not that I’m suggesting for a moment that there will be an increase in the incidence of cancer in the area as a result of any residues that might just sneak out of the chimney of the incinerator plant. Apparently residents of the micro community of Glenwhilly, who live just downwind of the plant, are not too happy about the thought of a chimney breaching their horizon and belching smoke out day and night. The days for them will soon be gone when they can hing oot a line of washin’ without first checking what way the winds blowing. Isn’t it reassuring to know that the crop of tomatoes will not suffer the same fate as the Glenwhilly folks’ pillowcases; the ripening crop will be tucked-up safely under cover. So there you have it, it’s a perfect world. The Central Belt sends their toxic waste down into the very ‘bottom’ of South Ayrshire to burn it on the border with Dumfries and Galloway. Then, depending on what way the wind is blowing, Dumfries and Galloway will get to enjoy the delicate aroma of Glasgow’s industrial waste gently ripening on the vine. And finally, the Central Belt will get back all those juicy red tomatoes that we’re not fit to eat. Perfect!
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