Baz wrote:
Tomatoes are abundant at this time of year and I have tasted other peoples
produce and none of them taste of much. Bland. They all grow GD as well.
I ought to have asked which variety if only to avoid, but I didn't much to
my annoyance, but I still can.

You could come and try mine and ask what variety they are, and I could
promise to let you know what I labelled them as once I dig the labels out.
;-) (I think about 50% are currently accessibly labelled)

I have my Roma and Rio Grand finally starting to ripen, and I hold out some
hope for them.

I've found that yellow tomatoes particularly taste bland and have little
texture, but Daniel likes them, so we try growing some each year. Black I
found terrible, and mushy. I think for large tomatoes I have found pink to
be the best.

In winter I buy cherry ones from supermarkets rather than the larger ones.
Admittedly it takes longer to make a sandwich and more skin but well worth
the effort.

For foreign imported tomatoes, I agree, the big ones tend to be very bland.
Probably cos they are picked under ripe and ripened en route. Cherry
tomatoes are better if they are ripened on the vine, which are now easy to
get in the supermarkets. Perhaps that is the key to your winter tomato
purchases.

Baz wrote:
Yes! Ailsa Craig are lovely and I remember having them from my uncle years
ago as a lad. He always had a greenhouse full of them and we had them from
breakfast until supper, in season.

And there you go - I always found Ailsa Craig as very dull! Perhaps the
year I grew them I just had a bad batch. I think I preferred Moneymaker.

Baz wrote:
I find that putting green tomatoes in a dark place ripens them, rather than
light or sunlight. I have tried all but dark wins hands down.

I have some ripening in the greenhouse in the sun, and some ripening in a
covered bowl with a banana. I think the banana is winning, marginally.

wrote in
:

Baz wrote:
Yes! Ailsa Craig are lovely and I remember having them from my uncle
years ago as a lad. He always had a greenhouse full of them and we
had them from breakfast until supper, in season.

And there you go - I always found Ailsa Craig as very dull! Perhaps
the year I grew them I just had a bad batch. I think I preferred
Moneymaker.

Hmm!
ENT is your next port of call. Say to them the word anosmic.

Baz

That would explain it - we've had a cold summer.

No to frosts - I don't, of course, put out the tomatoes until after any danger of low temperatures in the greenhouse.