4 ms·
In addition to being bred for yield, there's shippability. One of the biggest reasons tomatoes from the store taste so bad is that they're picked completely gr
by jofer 11y ago
In addition to being bred for yield, there's shippability.
One of the biggest reasons tomatoes from the store taste so bad is that they're picked completely green. The second is that the commercial varieties are bred to have a pastier texture and be tougher to stand up to shipping. The third is that tomatoes don't stand up to refrigeration without a change in texture.
My uncle grows tomatoes commercially in southeast Tennessee. If you actually let the commercial varieties ripen all the way and don't refridgerate them, they're pretty good. They're better than the anything you can buy at a fancy grocery store. They're not as good as homegrown brandywines, but they're on par some of the popular hybrid varieties, and will beat out any store-bought heirloom (e.g. a store-bought brandywine).
However, when any tomato is picked to sell in bulk, they have to be picked completely green. Otherwise they'll be too badly bruised to sell. The "vine ripened" tomatoes you buy in the store just means that they cut off some of the vine along with the green tomatoes.
The site is down, so forgive me if I'm pointing out something that's mentioned there. At any rate, in my opinion, commercial tomatoes suffer more from being picked completely green so they'll survive shipping than anything else.
- tgb 11y agoDo you know about canned tomatoes?
- hanniabu 11y agoWhat do you want to know about them?
- jofer 11y agoI'm not 100% sure on this, but my understanding is that commercial canned tomatoes are more likely to be picked ripe. The reason is that canned tomatoes usually come from the leftovers and blemishes. When they pick a field of tomatoes (green), quite a few are left behind due to being too small, strangely shaped, etc. These are usually allowed to ripen. From what I understand, those are what canned tomatoes most often come from, as they're the cheapest. No one cares if a misshaped or bruised tomato gets canned. It will still taste about the same. Therefore, you can ship the tomatoes closer to ripe, as you're not worried about bruising. On a side note, canned tomatoes are actually usually very good if you buy a respectable brand. The bargain brands vary a lot more. Honestly, unless it's late summer and I can get great tomatoes, I make salsa from canned tomatoes instead of fresh. (Note: this is for things where I'd be fire-roasting the fresh tomatoes anyway.)
- bkmartin 11y agoCanned tomatoes are picked ripe from the field and shipped directly to the canning facilities via large semi trucks and trailers. My dad used to work at one of these facilities to which one of my best friends growing up is the son of then President of the company. His older brother now runs the plant.
- weaksauce 11y agoif it's s&w brand I hope they go back to selling the large cans of peeled whole tomatoes. I used to love making pasta/pizza/enchilada sauce using their 6lb can of whole tomatoes from costco for around $2.50 a can.(had a really nice tart and sweet taste) I haven't found a decent alternative since they stopped making those that isn't the San Marzano super sweet tomatoes and that don't cost an arm and a leg.
- bkmartin 11y agoUnfortunately it is not that company. Good luck finding a replacement though.
- sandworm101 11y ago>> One of the biggest reasons tomatoes from the store taste so bad is that they're picked completely green. You are buying from the wrong stores. Tomatoes can be easily grown locally in greenhouses, negating any reason to pick them green. This is where my costco tomatoes come from. Note they are not green when picked. http://blogs.theprovince.com/2015/03/04/b-c-s-booming-greenhouse-tomato-industry-definitely-not-in-the-red-these-days/ http://blogs.theprovince.com/2015/03/04/b-c-s-booming-greenh...
- katbyte 11y agoAnd they just taste so much better then those USA grown beef-steak ones you can get in the supermarket. They arn't the best, but they have actual flavour and i find are pretty good.
- arprocter 11y agoI wonder if something similar happens with avocados - even the "ripe" ones sold in stores normally feel hard enough to smash a window. Are people planning on making guac buying a week ahead of time?
- biot 11y agoAvocados are tough to keep at a consistent firmness. Left on the shelf, they go from rock solid to bruised mush in no time. What I do personally is buy ten at a time and leave them out to ripen. When each one is just about to be ripe, I put it in the fridge, where it stays consistent for weeks. As supply dwindles (I eat about one a day on average) I overlap by getting another 10. Stores should really start doing this themselves... wait until they're just about ripe, then package them in sealed containers (so shoppers can't poke and bruise them) and keep them refrigerated. Obviously more effort which will add to the cost, but I'm guessing the average consumer would happily pay a bit more to get ripe avocados on demand. Otherwise you either have to really plan ahead or go on a search for the rare unicorn that is a ripe one.
- arprocter 11y agoInteresting - I'll have to give that a try!
- mrfusion 11y agoHow do you tell when to fridge them? Slightly mushy?
- biot 11y agoThey are slightly tender and the stem can be wiggled a bit. Beyond that, I don't know how to objectively quantify it, but if you know what a perfectly ripe avocado feels like, it's about the same or just a little bit less. They might ripen in the fridge another half-day's worth. And if you don't know that, trial and error will quickly converge to an optimal solution within a few tries.
- fnordfnordfnord 11y ago
- gumballhead 11y agoYes, it's not breeding for yield that makes them tasteless, it's breeding to make them hard so they can move through our industrial supply chain.