Why do commercial tomatoes taste so bad? Explanation here!

People like us have been complaining about cardboard tomatoes for a generation. The ag scientists at Davis (who are mostly responsible for the modern tomato) have indeed felt somewhat guilty about this situation, but not guilty enough to fix it. Basically, because they didn't know *why* it had arisen in the first place. But now they do, and maybe now they can/will fix it.

Meanwhile, grow and/or buy heirlooms!

Geo

Hi- I love heirloom tomatoes, but they don't produce very well, and they don;t ship well. That is why you mostly see them at the farmer's markets. Every year in my garden I grow Brandywine heirloom tomatoes, which love, but you only get an average of three huge tomatoes per plant. There are some nonheirloom tomatoes that I also love, such as sungold, which is a orange colored cherry tomatoe.

Part of the reason that most supermarket tomatoes taste like cardboard, is because the grower is forced to pick them too green, and most commercial tomato variates, are bred to ship well, and not for wonderful taste. The shipping quality of the tomato is probably the number one consideration for tomato breeders. I just eat canned tomatoes, when homegrown fresh ones are not available, but generally I don't eat tossed salads in the wintertime anyway. Hope this helps, Nancy

Yeah, I have the same issue with growing heirlooms. They're nice, pretty tomatoes, and can taste fantastic, but their production is usually very low. While I do grow a variety of tomatoes for fun, I like the ones with a consistently high yield and good tomato flavor, like Better Boys. Most of my tomato space is dedicated to hybrids for this reason.

Interesting comments re: low yield. I've grown Brandywine for a few years and haven't observed low yield. Certainly nothing like the commercial tomatoes, but decent enough; plus, they taste one helluva lot better!!

Geo