On Sun, 11 Sep 2005 04:44:39 -0500, Suze
suze_anderson@spamcop/dot/obvious wrote:

Quoting Jon Shemitz:
Suze wrote:

They will taste just fine. It is a persistent myth that tomatoes must
always be left on the vine until dead ripe for the best taste.

No, a tomato picked ripe in the middle of a run of great tomato days
will always taste better than a Farmers' Market tomato,

Not necessarily.

Yes, necessarily.

It depends on who is selling at your FM and what
varieties they are offering. Some FMs have more selection than others
-- an FM in SoCal might actually have some great selections, whereas
one in Podunk, Iowa may not.

Here in Podunk, South Carolina, we have a lovely, newly started
Farmer's Market on Saturdays in a bank parking lot. And, yeah,
you can tell the difference in a tomato picked ripe that morning,
and one of any variety ripened on the counter.

I had the same problem FDR had, only mine was for most of the
month of June and the first half of August. Too much rain,
tomatoes left on the vine splitting, so I brought them inside to
ripen. I had Black From Tula, Mortgage Lifters, Box Car Willies,
Brandywines, Druzba, and Peron Sprayless. The area just to the
north of us had a more normal rain pattern, and one of the local
growers from that area comes to the Farmer's Market every
weekend. He's growing Better Boys and one of the Tomato Spotted
Wilt Virus hybrids. He's still getting tomatoes, and they're
wonderful.

So, I was forced to make the comparison between vine-ripened and
counter ripened, and vine ripened will win every time, even when
it's a marginal flavor tomato like Better Boy. Even the tomatoes
I left on the vine to ripen after they split tasted better, I
just cut a few slices off the bottom.

Penelope





--
"Maybe you'd like to ask the Wizard for a heart."
"ElissaAnn"