These tomatoes looked wonderful in the store. Big, bright red, a bit of green from the vines still attached. These tomatoes are almost works of art. Hot house grown, carefully nurtured for the perfect look, what else could one ask of a tomato?
Well, not to put too fine a point on this, but how about taste and texture to start. These tomatoes are rock-solid hard. They lack juice and are even missing the distinctive tomato fragrance.
There was a rumour a few years ago that the latest hot-house tomatoes being grown in southwester Ontario were going to be more like the tomatoes so many of us recall from our youth. Since shipping was no longer a problem, these tomatoes are grown but hours from market, tomatoes able to resist the worst handling imaginable would no longer carry a premium. Breeding for taste would become the dominant driver.
I'm disappointed to inform all that tomato breeders are finding it difficult to dig themselves out of the tomato hell into which they have tumbled. Meanwhile, oddly enough, there are still diced tomatoes in cans and those wily canners seem to know where to go when seeking tasty tomatoes.
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