04 July 2011

Why we grow our own tomatoes

It's not a matter of cost; it's a matter of taste.  Here's an excerpt from the book "Tomatoland: How Modern Industrial Agriculture Destroyed Our Most Alluring Fruit":
With all the help they can get from their chemical friends, and provided that they are not killed by frosts or blown over by hurricanes, Florida tomatoes are ready for picking after ten to fifteen weeks. Ready for picking, but by no means ripe. An industrial Florida tomato is harvested when it is still hard and green and then taken to a packinghouse, where it is gassed with ethylene until it artificially acquires the appearance of ripeness. But as far back as the 1920s, food scientists had determined that no tomato artificially ripened with ethylene would ever have taste and texture equal to one allowed to ripen naturally. In the field, any fruits that show the slightest blush of pink, let alone red, are left to rot or are scavenged by freelance "pinhookers" who pay a small fee to enter fields that have been harvested and collect fruits showing color to sell to local restaurants and vegetable stands or through pinhookers’ markets. It’s not that the Florida growers can’t pack fully ripe tomatoes. They have done it in the past. But doing so requires frequent harvesting over a long period of time, which is costly. It is more profitable for them and their large fast food and supermarket customers to handle and sell tomatoes that are harvested in two or three passes when they are green, indestructibly hard, and impeccably smooth skinned and have a couple of weeks of shelf life ahead of them. Taste does not enter the equation. "No consumer tastes a tomato in the grocery store before buying it. I have not lost one sale due to taste," one grower said. "People just want something red to put in their salad." 
Posted at onearth, via Cynical-C.

11 comments:

  1. "I have not lost one sale due to taste," one grower said."

    That's what he thinks. I don't buy these tomatoes because of their taste and texture.

    CCL

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  2. Up until 40 or so years ago the tomato was picked mostly by migrant farm workers...by hand and nearly ripe. Then a hybrid was developed that was tough enough to harvest mechanically...and green.

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  3. There is NOTHING better than a home grown tomato, picked fresh off the vine -- red and warm.

    I *hate* store bought cardboard tomatoes... :::shudders:::

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  4. I've found a few decent-tasting organic tomatoes in the supermarket. But I much prefer homegrown.

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  5. I've linked to you here:
    http://www.hortsource.co.nz/article.aspx?id=1749

    Hope you don't mind!

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  6. If I can't get organic tomatoes, or get them at the farmer's market, I often get BIG cherry tomatoes (slightly less than golf-ball sized). They work well in salads and can even be sliced (carefully) for sandwiches. The ones I get are hydroponically grown, without pesticides etc., and have a somewhat better flavor than supermarket tomatoes. I think they can keep them on the vines longer because the skin strength of a small tomato is proportionately greater, so they aren't as fragile once they begin to ripen. Smaller cherry tomatoes can also be fine in salads and often taste pretty good, but they have too much skin for the flesh for me.

    --Swift Loris

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  7. Thank you, Kathyrn - I'm flattered.

    And nice website, BTW...

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  8. The home grown variety are so good sometimes that I secretly eat them while no one is paying attention and then claim that nothing ripened. It's like candy.

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  9. We grow our own, but you can (at least in the UK) get tolerable tomatoes from shops. Usually the sort that are still on the vine are quite acceptable.

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  10. The local farmers market is substituting for our own garden this year, since we haven't the time to do our own. The tomatoes at the farmers market are just as good as our own, since they were grown and harvested the same way.

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  11. I believe I will grow my own from now on. Makes me wonder what they put in tomatoe paste and sauce

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