"Phideaux" > wrote in message
...
>
>
> "Mark Thorson" > wrote in message
> ...
>> Melba's Jammin' wrote:
>>>
>>> Gotta. Otherwise how would they know which are the organically grown
>>> tomatoes or the hydroponically grown tomatoes or one of the other
>>> variations on tomatoes --- they all look like tomatoes. :-)
>>
>> Or they could drop them and see how high they bounce.
>>
>> I'm astounded how the on-the-vine hothouse tomatoes
>> can look so good, so deeply red, and yet be so firm
>> and tasteless.
>
> I live in the deep south and I haven't seen a good tomato in the stores
> for a couple of years now. Homegrown is the only way to go with tomatoes
> these days.
>
> Even the Ugly Ripe variety have lost their flavor.
>
> In all fairness, it has to be a logistical nightmare to get really ripe
> tomatoes to market and have them all sell before they rot.

I can trump ya, Bowser. I live in the great Central Valley of California.
Tomato growing region. Growing up, the air smelled like hot cooked tomatoes
because of all the canning factories and all the 'maters they processed.

I can't buy a decent tomato in a grocery store in this town (the once-aptly
nicknamed Sacratomato) to save my soul - not even in AUGUST. Were it not
for my morbid fear of <shudder> tomato worms, I'd grow my own (shut up,
Blake!). As it is, I buy them at the farmers market or rely upon the
kindness of non-wormaphobic friends who grow tomatoes.

TammyM