Hacker News Reader

I have the same thoughts about tomatoes. Tomatoes today have no flavor compared to what I remembered. It could be the flavor notes of childhood-backyard-summertime nostalgia, New Jersey terrior, and simply explained by the genetic modification such that tomatoes could be mechanically harvested weeks before they're ripe in the field. I'm a tomato luddite.

View on HN

Tomatoes, definitely! My brother works at a major shipping company and tomatoes are picked green, and then the trucks they are shipped in have an environment where they turn red.

You can really taste the difference when you go to a farmers market and try a fresh tomato! Make sure the top of the tomato is orange so that you know it's fresh!

Bananas are often force rippened at the warehouse before sale, as well.

The ethylene is used to retrigger their natural ripening process which has been stunted to allow them to be shipped abroad.

"Tomatoland", by Barry Estabrook, is an engaging (if depressing) look at how the tomato biz got that way.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com