Cardboard tomatoes -- a mistake?

Or did they do it to us on purpose?  I always figured that tastelessness in modern tomatoes was an unintended consequence of the desire to make them firmer and easier to transport.  It's true that the worthless flavor and texture of just about all supermarket tomatoes is an unintended consequence, but not of the desire to make them as tough as tennis balls.  It was a side-effect of something far more useless:  a gene that makes the tomatoes turn uniformly red when ripe, instead of leaving unsightly patches of green.  So now they're purty, but not worth the trouble of chewing.  The linked article claims that researchers think they figured out to turn the flavor gene back on, but regulations forbade them actually to taste a research product, so they're not sure, and anyway they'd be crazy to try to market an evil GM tomato, right?

Heirloom tomatoes have escaped this fate, so it's still possible to grow a decent tomato at home.  At least, I assume it's possible for some of you.  We have terrible luck with tomatoes here, perhaps because we don't use pesticides, but perhaps even more because our climate tends to go from "too cold to bloom" to "too hot to set fruit" in the space of about a week every spring.  It makes me want to build an air-conditioned greenhouse, because a good tomato is the crown of creation.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

We had zero luck with tomatoes last year (drought plus heat plus blossom end rot). This year is looking better thus far. I think the damp spell in late May helped, as did relocating the plants into the garden from the patio. The regular tomatoes in the store have been blah, and the good-tasting cherry tomatoes cost an arm and a leg.

LittleRed1

raven said...

Wow. I thought it was just the cold and wet here the PNW that made a good tomato hard to grow. Seems like the hot regions have their own set of gardening difficulties.
We have switched to tomatillo's and the little cherry tomato's they seem to do better with the cold. We are still getting nights in the forties.

Texan99 said...

We have read that blossom-end rot results from too little calcium in the soil, so LR's tomatoes might benefit from the application of crushed limestone.

Texan99 said...

We have read that blossom-end rot results from too little calcium in the soil, so LR's tomatoes might benefit from the application of crushed limestone.

bthun said...

Tex has the BER covered. I'll till in pelleted lime when the Ph gets outta whack. Most State Ag departments have a County Extension Agent who will test your soil for free or a small fee. It's worth it to know what and how much the soil needs.

This year WB and I had 10 yards^3 of 50% top soil, 30% composted mushroom and 20% chicken litter mix hauled in to the vegetable garden... At least the guy at the soil/mulch distributor said the composted mushroom and chicken litter mix was 60%/40%. Let me tell ya, it sure smelled mighty strong before I tilled it into the vegetable garden.

Now we've got around 64' of tomato plants in rows, 96' of bush beans in rows. WB picked a bushel of them this am. A 8'x8' box full of squash, same for bell ,Italian, sweet, and jalapeño peppers, 16' of cucumbers, and a 8'x8' box of cantaloupes. All growing and producing like crazy.*

I think Walkin' Boss has a trip to go to the State Farmers Market scheduled for some time after the 4th to buy the serious quantities of produce. We'll most likely eat and/or give away to family and neighbors all the kitchen garden output, then put up/'can' the farmer's market haul. A nice benefit at the farmers market is they have shelling machines. Use the machines for a pittance, and you do not have to shell beans and peas by hand.

Yup, the huns are just prepping for the Zombie Apocalypse, or seven years of scarcity/famine, whichever comes first.

*Since my injury we've had to cut back on the kitchen garden. =;^}

Anonymous said...

Interesting. My favorite tomatos, Cherokee Purple and Black Krim, look bruised when they are ripe. They are also soft. I tell my husband and kids I'm getting the ugly ones.

The flavor, though, tastes like my mother's home-grown tomatoes. Those were Early Girl, Big Boy and Beefsteak.

I've never seen those varieties identified in the grocery store.

Anonymous said...

I'm afraid my soil is so alkaline that I'd need to drench the poor plants with vinegar before adding limestone. This year I had some leftover bone meal so I mixed that in when I planted the tomatoes. *shrug* Works for roses. However, now I have a family member who is eating the tomatoes off the vine. And unlike potting squirrels, shooting family members is generally frowned upon in this area.

LittleRed1

bthun said...

"now I have a family member who is eating the tomatoes off the vine. And unlike potting squirrels, shooting family members is generally frowned upon in this area."

Heh... Down he'ah in the Deep South, we usually reserve the spot behind the woodshed and the stropping leather for attending to said relatives of ill repute.

E Hines said...

However, now I have a family member who is eating the tomatoes off the vine.

Not a threat from me. I'm not enamored of tomatoes. Now in Panama City, while I was at Tyndall, I had good patches of red--and black--raspberries going. And it was shockingly simple: jam a cane into the (very sandy) soil and in a week or two, it's going like gangbusters.

I competed with a little neighbor girl for my share of the raspberries. Not much competition; those patches were producing more than we could possibly consume. And nor I, nor my wife, nor the neighbor girl's mother had the patience to leave some for canning for later.

Eric Hines