Posted on 04/04/2017 4:44:54 PM PDT by vannrox
Live in western Colorado in a agricultural area fed by good soil and irrigation from the Colorado River ... in addition to great wine, peach orchards, fresh produce, including tomatoes (in season) are the best. Heirloom tomatoes are especially tasty ...
Did you read the article? They are looking to genetically engineer in flavor.
It really doesn’t have that much to do with the variety. The biggest reason your average store-bought tomato has no taste is that they are picked green and then put in cold storage so they can be marketed over a span of months. When it’s time to market them, they pump CO2 and other gases into the cold locker, and that turns them red. But, even though they are red, you are eating a green tomato.
mom used to feed us tomato sandwiches with mayo grown from only a few plants and we had 6 kids. I never knew how poor we were until I grew up and after the military lived my life. Many weeks it was like a daily schedule, we’d have green bean casserole with hot dogs, or spaghetti, manwich. Sure we were poor and may not of realized it at the time BUT I’m am so grateful I was raised with our father and mother together and even today thank my mom for raising me in the Catholic schools up north (which were free for a time)
Thanks again Mom.
I grow tomatoes from seed my neighbor gave me.
He was an attorney from NY and represented a mob family.
In appreciation for his service, they told him they wanted to give him these seeds. They came from Italy in the early 1900s and were only shared with family. It was meant as an honor when they included him.
There are two varieties.
My neighbor has grown them for 40 years. He is now 89.
They are delicious and beautiful.
I call them Mob Tomatoes.
The irony of all this needs an analogy: that of hi-fidelity stereo vs. crummy mono in music. Scientists assumed that Hi-Fi would be much more popular, despite its expense, because its sound quality was leaps and bounds over that of mono.
What they didn’t count on was that only a fraction of people have good enough hearing to tell the difference. Which is a big part of why rock ‘n’ roll with its strong beat, is far more popular than complex harmonies over large scales.
So what finally sold was “okay” stereo, cheap enough for the tone limited yet with much better sound quality.
And yet something like this applies to tomatoes and other foods, like chicken, as well. Most people can’t really tell enough to care what their tomato *tastes* like, as long as it has a good “mouth feel”, texture, and is large and easier to slice without a Ginsu.
You’ve never tasted a really great tomato or carrots until you’ve added rock dust. A couple of years ago we also added 20 pounds of greensand from New Jersey under the tomatos, and will add more this year. It’s expensive, at Agway, but worth it. Someday we’ll see if we can find it by the trailer load in New Jersey. We just throw it on and spade it in. The rock dust also makes the soil easier to dig and retains water. For the first time we eren’t bothered by slugs eating the tomatos. The rock dust has sharp edges and they don’t like crawling over it.
Heard about it on the Coast to Coast AM radio show, then read about it on the internet, and in a book about Findhorn garden in Scotland.
About 50 years ago, I grew a batch of tomatos that was amazingly sweet and delicious. I figured it was the variety, so for many years tried different varities with no luck. Then I heard about rock dust on the radio show and realized what must have happened. The good year, had planted them inan area where granite had been quarried and the soil was loaded with the dust from drilling.
About 5 years ago I added a yard of rock dust spread all over the garden. Tried several varieties of tomatos. All were super sweet and delicious. It greatly improved the taste of carrots and beets, and to a lesser degree, other vegetables.
Most produce is crap these days.
Its grown thousands of miles away from where its sold.
Its often rotten before its ripe.
You want good tomatoes; grow your own.
Love Mortgage Lifter..Unfortunately, so do the squirrels and chipmunks...If you, or anyone else has tips to discourage them from taking a bite or two from each of my tomatoes, I would appreciate it...They are the bane of my gardening existence—Rodents and squash bugs!!!
They are probably looking for water. Put shallow pan out located a distance away from the tomatoes and hopefully that will keep them from taking a bite or two from your tomatoes.
We have seen how they harvest them in the fields. They are harvested GREEN, because the skin is firmer allowing for less bruising, then chemically ‘ripened’ to red color. However, they are still green. Dont buy any store-distributed tomatoes that don’t have the stems attached.
A lady at the farmers’ market in Davis used to sell a variety called Park’s Whoppers. When we first discovered them, we’d buy a grocery bag full of them and practically live off of them for a week, they were so delicious. But you had to get there early or they’d sell out.
As their popularity increased, the lady began to act like she was doing you a favor even selling you her Park Whoppers. Then I realized she, like everyone else in Davis, was a Communist, and her attitude seemed say, “how dare some of you starving students, albeit Capitalist pigs at heart, try to buy up all my Whoppers and deprive the poor peasants their rightful share.” So she restricted sales to three or four tomatoes per customer and soon went out of business. And all the peasants starved to death. Hahahaha, stupid Communists.
Anyway, haven’t had a Park Whopper since. I check Park’s catalog occasionally and they still have them and claim they are better than ever.
It’s amazing to peruse the seed catalogs and see all the different varieties that are available out there, hundreds of them. Bet they’re good. Waaay better than store bought.
We're retired now and living on our own farm with a big garden and a greenhouse, so we grow our own tomatoes and other vegetables. They are delicious.
But even when we lived in cities and towns, we grew tomatoes in flower beds or pots. Can't imagine not having a fresh, delicious tasty homegrown tomato for a meal.
There’s a pick-your-own farm not far from where I live. They have lots of big red ripe tomatoes that you can pick off of the vine, but they’re not very flavorful.
Memories from kidhood — summertime, soft white Wonder bread, sliced tomatoes and mayo. Yum!
Substitute potato salad for the chips and Whip.
Remember peaches that aren’t hard as rocks?
When Cesar Chavez succeeded in eliminating the Bracero program tomato farmers turned to the seed companies and to Food Machinery Corporation to solve their picker problem. They came up with a tomato hybrid of which 40% plus would mature in a short given period of time. Second they came up with a mechanized picker that would pick tomatos, vines and all, harvest the good stuff, and shred and return the rest to the earth as mulch. The problem is that you lost the beefsteak and other wonderful old tomato types. The Big Boy in later years was popular became it managed to return some taste to the tomato; as far as the beefsteak is concerned, I’m not sure you can buy its seed anymore. Sad.
HoneyCrisp were $3.50 a pound at Costco last week.
I will say this, if ya live near Katy Texas these 2 old guys on Dahlia Lane competed back yard to back yard, and sold (may even still sell) great family fresh corn, tomatoes, what ever from the front driveway. I wish i had their growing skills.
Yes, I like less regulations.
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