The Quest to Make a Super Tomato

The same idea applies for other fruits and vegetables, like corn, peas, and especially peaches and pears. The trick is finding a good canned variety. Most mass produced versions from the familiar large names (Dole, Del Monte, etc. in the US) are not great. However, for example there is a smaller grocery chain near me which brands their own delicious version of canned peaches from a regional producer annually at the peak of ripeness.

But the canned tomato experience is never going to be the same as fresh tomato. Perhaps as good or better in someways, but there are going to be fundamental differences in texture and taste.

There may also be a health issue with BPA exposure particularly with acidic canned contents.

Also food portions being routinely over packaged (here in small metal containers) is looking increasingly dubious in these times of overstretched and wasted resources.

This is great to hear -- tomato seeds are easy to collect and store, and are a good intro to encourage friends to start doing the same.

I note you mention prune noire -- I don't think we have that here in Australia (though we're quite fortunate in the huge range of tomato varieties we do have, as a lot of immigrants brought their seeds across with them in the early part of last century, before we cracked down on flora importing). If you haven't tried growing them I'd recommend whatever other black ones you can find -- here we have Black Krim, Black Russian, Purple Russian, and a smaller cherry-style variety of one of those. All superb flavour, texture, and eye-appeal.

I completely agree. I grew tomatoes for the first time last year and couldn't believe the difference in taste. The cherry tomatoes had a sweetness I had never tasted in a cherry tomatoe before. It was almost like they were cross-bred with grapes. The heirlooms were so dense that when you cut them almost no water was on the plate. It was amazing the difference from anything I had tasted in the supermarket.

An interesting side note for those in the Bay Area: these were grown in sf, and in PAC heights which is on the foggier side. Tomatoes survived better than a lot of other plants. I can only imagine how they would have grown down in Silicon Valley with twice the sun and heat.

Red Roma tomatoes grown slow (3 months) and picked right before peak ripening... unbelievable diced up and served with basil and fresh mozzarella on toasted bread, lightly brushed with olive oil and sea salt.

The issue is not so much that they're fast grown or from a hothouse. But that they are grown out of season with artificial light, harvested almost green and ripe during transit. Best case they are tasteless, worst case they are bitter and IMO unfit for consumption.

I grow my own in a hothouse because it's not hot enough to do so without here in Denmark. At least not in the quantities I want.

"seeds from the tomatoes themselves produce fruits that taste differently."

That's interesting, do you happen to know why that is? My wife and I just started a little garden, partially based on growing seeds from peppers and squash that we've bought at farmer's markets, and now I'm curious to see if anything ends up tasting substantially different.

Those varieties, while I agree are delicious, aren't very hardy. I love a good heirloom tomato, but god help you if you let it bump into anything. They bruise far too easily for mass production. Right now we have tomatoes that are delicious, and tomatoes that are hardy. The goal here seems to be to find one that's both, which I'm totally for.

>> Why genetically engineer a new tomato

patents? profit?

Actually most tomatoes in Europe suck as well. You'd be very lucky to find any in a supermarket, except in the summer if you live in the proper location.

The trick is that what most people think is a great tomato is not, they never tasted one. They think they have good ones when they eat one that's ok. A tomato is not supposed to be "ok". It's suppose to be "omg I want to make my whole lunch out of only those".

It seems surprising, but then again many children have never seen a cow IRL or picked up a strawberry from the ground themself.

When I want great tomatoes, I have some options:

- go to my local market. This requires to know your stuff, as most tomatoes are still garbage, despite the fact I leave on the Italian border. And most people around me have no idea what a good vegetable should look like. This knowledge completely disappeared, even among foodies.

- buy from a local farmers cooperative or directly from small producers. This is the best solution as it's almost always good. But as a freelancer, I have the time for this. Most people don't.

- buy from an organic shop. Pretty much a hit or miss, which sucks since they are very expensive, but still you have more chance to get something that in the supermarket.

- grow them. My GF does that, thanks god.

I'm just amazed of what people consider good product these days. The food is so messed up people settle for anything that taste ok. This is a terrible status quo. Vegetables and fruits are supposed to taste awesome. They are the best thing ever. A good tomato doesn't even need salt or oil, you can eat it like an apple.

The fact so many kids hate healthy food is not a problem with the kids. It's a problem with the food. What we give them taste bad. I don't blame them for eating the ben and jerry ice cream. At least it's guarantied to taste good.

Please enlighten me : I'm French and the only good tomatoes I eat are the ones my parents are growing in their garden.

Unless you live next where they grow and can consume them ripe, I don't see how you can find any good tomato in the world.

Several relatives of mine work at a Dutch family owned seed company. They have a good company culture and they breed good tasting tomato varieties. https://www.rijkzwaanusa.com/crop/tomato

>> Or they can simply leave them a bit more in the sun.

This is what the whole article is about:

[intro]

The life of a tomato is halted tragically early. They’re wrenched from the vine in their adolescence and fledged from their natal farms when they’re still green and hard as stones. Snipped from their vines, the fruit is never allowed to ripen in the field and develop the sugars and flavor chemicals that make them taste like something other than a verdant rock. Unfortunately, for large-scale commercial farming this is the only way. Imagine shipping squishy, perfectly ripe tomatoes across the county. They’d arrive sauced.

[...]

If farmers could somehow allow a tomato fruit to ripen on the vine and develop flavor without going soft, everyone would be happy. Farmers get high yield, consumers get a tasty product, and tomatoes everywhere could keep a shred of their integrity.

[rest of the article]

Don't forget this part of the article: “We realized that the commercial varieties being grown at the time didn’t taste that great,” says Martineau. “Even if you grew them in your backyard and let them fully ripen on the vine, they wouldn’t have had great tomato flavor.”