Posted on 10/21/2025 6:50:13 AM PDT by Red Badger
“They” didn’t ruin the tomato. You can still get all the heirloom tomatoes you want. Some crunchy granola grocery will be selling them, or a local farmer’s market, or a roadside stand. Or you can grow them yourself in your backyard.
You can eat all the fresh heirloom tomatoes you want ... for a few weeks, in season. But if you want fresh tomatoes out of season, you will have to settle most of the year for tomatoes transported long distances. That translates into varieties developed to hold up under the handling, shipping and shelf life constraints of a global food chain.
Are the heirloom tomatoes better? I will leave that up to the tomato aficionados. Personally, I think the best and highest use of tomatoes is in pizza or spaghetti sauce, and the canned tomato products are ok by me.
But no one is stopping you from getting the heirloom varieties, and eating them when they are so fresh and ripe that they bruise when you look at them. You can have mine. All I want is pizza and spaghetti year-round.
Insects eat or ruin about 38% of food crops every year. Animals can eat only a fraction of this.
I seem to remember that the highest single mass of living things is ants.
Believe what you want. I haven’t had a real tomato in ages. I generally pick them out of whatever they are in because they are so bad. Bad texture, color and taste. Some of it is because they are grown in hot houses. But they always messing with Garden foods to make them grow faster and be more bug resistant. Tomato’s are suppose to be orange to red. They are supposed to pretty much melt in your mouth, and have a nice tangy flavor. They are not supposed to be like cellulose or have a white color. They are not supposed to be flavorless or have chemical taste like they do today.
Buy different varieties of tomatoes. You might have to start shopping somewhere else, assuming you live within range of other options. Or grow them yourself, and enjoy them when they’re in season.
I live in an area with plenty of choices. I know that not everyone does.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.