Why not great tasting tomatoes year round?

Seriously. If we can put a wo/man on the moon, why can’t we have great tasting tomatoes year round? I know I’ve read that they breed for skins that can withstand pressure and long haul trucking. But is there really no way? Could a local farmer accomplish this?

From what I see at the Berkeley farmers markets, it’s hard to have great tomatoes even two months of the year.

Certainly the same techniques that were applied to breeding for consistency and shelf life could be used to make out-of-season supermarket tomatoes taste better. They’ve sort of done that with some of the newer cherry tomato hybrids.

Mother nature says ." No ". Those hot house ones taste like shit .

It’s actually quite doable, and being done in various parts of the country.

The solution? Greenhouses.

On a trip to the Canadian Rockies several years ago, we were served some of the best tasting tomatoes for dinner in the dead of winter at a B&B in Jackson, WY.

How, you ask? The B&B host sourced them from a local greenhouse.

Feasible, yes.

Cost-effective? On a large-scale (read: grocery store) basis? Debatable.

We has the technology. Not as profitable as cannabis, but the same principle applies to indoor tomato horticulture.

It’s always blown me away the price of weed . Put it in the ground and you can grow it just like a tomato plant .What’s the big deal . I just like growing one along with my tomatoes . I end up giving it away .

A few years ago our local chain supermarket (Market Basket in the Greater Boston area) began selling “Backyard Beauty” tomatoes from a farm in Maine. The tomatoes are grown hydroponically and are non-GMO certified. We think they taste terrific.

We start buying these tomatoes when our local farm tomato crop ends and it helps get us through the cold weather till the next seasonal tomato harvest.

We do have pretty decent tomatoes year-round here in SoCal. Not the romas, but the vine and cherry tomatoes (hydroponics/greenhouse), and even the big supermarkets carry heirlooms. You can theoretically grow them year-round locally (I’ve had plants producing like crazy in the middle of January), but I think moreover the demand is high enough that they do bother with all of the hydroponics here. I wouldn’t hesitate to put a raw slice on a sandwich no matter what month it is.

i have a suspicion that part of the problem is the awful thing that happens to the tomato flavor and texture when it has been refrigerated.

to ship and store tomatoes separately from all the other (refrigerated) produce is problematic.

even some of the tomatoes that end up at farmers markets get there in a refrigerated truck --kept at the same same temp as the lettuce. . . .

Kumatoes are pretty good and, since they are greenhouse/hydroponically grown, should hypothetically be available year-round.

https://au.lifestyle.yahoo.com/food/news/a/15191268/ten-things-you-didnt-know-about-the-kumato/

We only had them available for a month or so this year, strangely. Maybe they didn’t sell well.

That is the key right there. Picked fresh after being allowed to fully ripen on the vine. That’s the problem with virtually all supermarket tomatoes – they are picked early.

Actually, Bruins in Winters grows extremely tasty tomatoes in greenhouses. They appear starting in March at Farmer’s Markets. (Marin and Ferry Plaza) They start with the less interesting tomatoes, like early girl and then continue to Black Prince and Purple Cherokee. They sell until July usually. Very good tomatoes.