Originally Posted by Debbie B
I have notice that my tomatoes the last couple of years don't have that good tomato taste. They're not bad. This year I bought some beefsteaks tomato plants from a little old woman out in the country. Now this year they taste more like tomatoes. In the past I bought the tomato plants from the local nursery or big chain store. Wonder what the difference is?
tomatoes are hybridized to look pretty and ship well and keep longer. to get something you have to give something. the old toms rotted easily, bruised up, were really ugly a lot of times and tasted great. there's nothing like the smell of a sliced tom right off the vine out in the sun, not in a greenhouse. we used to eat them in our grubby hands when we were kids. and that was even in the city. (not to mention that as you get older your taste buds become less sensitive and you miss out on some of the flavor of everything. that's why you hear older people saying: when i was young, soap [or something] used to taste much better than it does today. true!)
"I have been buying the better boy and better girl tomatoes. When they make, they are terriffic. no tomatoes anyplace around here this year. First we had too much water too fast and too long,now we have scotching heat filled days that are burning the gardens up."
both of those varieties were developed here in new jersey at rutgers university, which has an agricultural program with gardens open to the public at certain times of the summer. this summer their own tomatoes stink.