"Tom Anderson" wrote in message
h.li...
Alan Holmes wrote:

'Vine' tomatoes are becomming fairly common in the shops, but:-

What, exactly, are 'Vine' tomatoes?

I remember well when they were first introduced. Then, they weren't called
vine tomatoes, or tomatoes on the vine, they were *vine-ripened* tomatoes,
and that's what they we tomatoes that had - god forbid! - actually been
allowed to ripen on the plant before being harvested and sold, so the
fruit you got had a discernable level of flavour. They were fabulous!

Now, these cost more to produce, since they have to be handled more
carefully, and there's more spoilage, but supermarkets found that people
were willing to pay a premium for them, so they were a viable product.
Soon after, however, supermarkets discovered that actually, people would
pay the premium even for unripe tomatoes, as long as they were on a vine,
having built up a Pavlovian cargo-cult response. Since rock-hard,
tasteless, unripe tomatoes are much cheaper to produce, selling 'vine
unripened' tomatoes (with the name changed to protect the guilty) was
money for old rope. Supermarkets do love a bit of money for old rope, and
since most shoppers are thick enough to buy said second-hand cord, vine
tomatoes have completely displaced vine-ripened tomatoes on the modern
shelf.

Oh, for the sunlit uplands of the late 90s, when ripe tomatoes could be
had on every high street!

One of the best things about our organic veg delivery is the taste of the
tomatoes. That is, the tomatoes actually have a taste.

Nik