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> a decent tomato

This is unfortunately an issue worldwide. Fresh tomatoes are a giant pain in the ass to grow. Flavor varies significantly. Getting decent ones here in the Pacific Northwest is basically a crapshoot at best.

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"The problem with today's tomato crops is that the fruit is too large. Growers are focusing on size, but as the international team of researchers has discovered, the bigger the tomato, the less sugar it has and the less intensive its aroma."

http://www.dw.com/en/what-makes-tomatoes-tasty/a-37292102

I grew up in the village where we used to grow our own tomatoes and it's simply not true that bigger ones taste differently. An average tomato (6-10cm in diameter), usually tastes just the same as a much smaller one growing on the same plant. Actually I didn't notice any difference in taste based on size. For a cucumbers that was definitely the case, once it passed certain size, cucumber use to become much less tastier, but tomatoes all tasted the same, delicious. And as with current tomatoes in the store, in rare instances you can be lucky and find a batch of great tomatoes that taste quite good, and they are all of decent size.

So what I'm saying is that at least my practical experience never even gave me a hint that bigger tomatoes would taste worse than smaller ones. And I was very surprised the first time I heard this hypothesis.

You cannot ship that large tomato you grew in the village, it would be mush by the time it got anywhere. Modden tomatoes are the the equivalent of a cardboard box, and for the same reason.

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