Kleins Supermarket
Shopping for Tomatoes
What do you look for when you shop for fruit and vegetables? Do you buy according to price, smell, feel, texture, freshness, or aesthetics? Since your choice is probably based on any or all of the above, let’s consider the following about picking out tomatoes.
Take a look at the average tomato on the shelf of your local grocer. Now go try to find a tomato that looks like that growing naturally in the wild. Barbara Kingsolver, in her book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, argues that tomatoes raised by agribusiness have other priorities in mind. The tomatoes big business grows are designed to ripen simultaneously and at the same size, for ease of machine harvesting. Trying to get tomatoes which are grown in your own backyard to do this would be like telling a class of students to all go through puberty at the exact same time, while they grow at the exact same pace. It’s just not natural.
Store bought tomatoes are often bred to have a tough skin to survive rough handling and a long transport (naturally taking away from the taste). They are engineered to withstand chemical fertilizers and pesticides. They are almost always picked early to allow time for transport. And the weirdest part; conventional tomatoes are designed to be roughly square-shaped to fit more tomatoes in the shipping crate. Does the taste and wholesomeness of food even rank anymore on the list of agribusiness’s priorities?
google image:triplepundit.com
agribusiness tomatoes
Here is a challenge to you. Go out and buy an heirloom tomato from a local farmers market. Then go buy the squarest tomato you can find on the shelf at the supermarket. Compare the taste, and I’ll bet you never eat a conventional tomato again.
google image:theredpillnews.blogspot.com
heirloom tomatoes
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Related articles
- Why Supermarket Tomatoes Tend to Taste Bland (libertycrier.com)
- There’s nothing like a good tomato (mnn.com)
- How the Taste Of Tomatoes Went Bad (And Kept On Going) – NPR (blog) (npr.org)
Thank you for posting this! I remember seeing the look on a young child’s face when handed a fresh tomato off the vine, and they smelled it and their eyes opened wide. There really is magic in fresh produce that simply is not there in mass-agriculture produce. I would much rather have a tomato that was grown organically with love and care – one that tastes great, rather than looks perfect!
Thank you for comment. Once we eat freshly grown tomatoes I don’t think we can ever enjoy a store bought tomato that’s been shipped in again. I’m glad you mentioned the smell because I forgot about that part of eating a fresh tomato. They do smell divine. :0
Yes, great article – I can rarely find good and tasty bought tomatoes anymore unless they are Roma and on the vine. I’m so sick of seeing these juiceless tomatoes? The ones where they don’t make you sandwiches soggy – just the idea makes me feel ill and wouldn’t purchase one on principle. If a tomato isn’t juicy and doesn’t make your sandwich soggy then it’s not a tomato!!
I’d love to grow my own, organic cherry tomatoes – perhaps I will give growing them in a pot a go
Thx for sharing.
Oh yes. Nice, juicy red tomatoes. I’m getting 3 or 4 a day off of my plants and they are so good. I haven’t had a tomato and mayonnaise sandwich in a long time. Yummy. I think I’ll go make one right now. Thanks for reading and commenting Michele.
I am so glad I shop at the local Farmer’s Market. So much better than the chain stores!
Isn’t that the truth? Thank you for your comment, Amberr.
There’s nothing like a home-grown tomato.
Agreed. We’re starting to get at least 1 a day now with a bunch more turning orange