i had my first homegrown tomato blt last night (i had never eaten a blt)
my expectations werent high because i HATE raw tomatoes. i knew id like my own tomatoes but i thought theyd end up being like a cooking thing but i bit into that blt and was like huh??? huh??!!!! it was so nice and flavorful, bright and rich. i ended up making a plain tomato sandwich afterwards.
i realized maybe i just dont like the diluted flavor of grocery store tomatoes? like i guess id never had a real tomato before? anyone else find a love of raw tomatoes after eating a homegrown one?
by candiedcorvid
26 Comments
This is because the tomatoes you typically buy in the grocery store are 1) primarily selected for longevity, productivity, and disease resistance rather than flavor; and 2) harvested well before the point of ripeness so that they can be packed onto a truck and driven all over the country to be sold by the grocery store before they go bad.
I’m like the opposite, used to like store bought tomatoes but now I just can’t. But also that’s awesome that you were open to growing and trying a food you thought you disliked! Welcome to the wonderful world of tomato sandwiches!!
My boyfriend didn’t know he liked tomatoes until he tasted the ones I grew last year. This year he requested at least 3 sungold plants!!
Same, I’ll eat salsa but not raw tomato outside of it. But yesterday ate them on tacos and a burger. They’re so much better!
I refuse to eat a tomato at a restaurant or out of season because I don’t enjoy wet, soggy cardboard flavor.
Store bought tomatoes taste like disappointment
I was the same way. Swore I hated raw tomatoes and then I started going to the farmers markets and tasting real local fresh and then I started gardening and now I refuse to eat store tomatoes at all again since I know what a good one tastes like!
I grow about 500-600lbs worth a year and I hate them just as much as the storebought ones, in terms of eating raw on their own. Only exception is in pico de gallo…..I find that at least edible (although I don’t much care for it) with homegrown tomatoes, but not with storebought.
I’ll pop a cherry tomato in my mouth every year or two just to say that I did it, but they get spat out just the same every time. And I had plenty of access to homegrown tomatoes as a child; just never liked them. And I am NOT a picky eater by any means.
[The neighbor on the side that overlooks my tomato patch teases me relentlessly every summer for growing so many, but not liking them. But 90% of my garden is for giveways, and my family *loves* tomatoes ..plus I just find them fun to grow, really]
Why can’t they come up with summer tomatoes all year long? I get it, they need to pick, storage, ship and sell….blah blah blah. But why can’t they at least come close? Sure, they’ll be premium but there must be a market for this, no??
Not to mention, it’s summer somewhere so why not at least import? Hell, I get decent grapes all year – why not tomatoes? Both are tender, short shelf life and need special care throughout the supply chain.
Anyone solve this mystery?
Everything’s better homegrown. And that is one beauty of a tomato you got there!
My partner rushed to show me this post because this describes me. I cannot stand store-bought tomatoes, but she’s a gardener and when I started trying her homegrown tomatoes I got hooked. Now I grow my own every year, Carbon being my favorite.
Store bought tomatoes barely have any flavor, while home grown tomatoes are practically bursting with it.
Relevant King of the Hill scene lol: [https://youtu.be/naOcKjO3jus?si=B7Df81Xw1755WSMu](https://youtu.be/naOcKjO3jus?si=B7Df81Xw1755WSMu)
Where they discover a Co-oP
”Hank, if this is food, what have we been eating?”
I hate store tomatoes. My uncle grows heirlooms for farmers markets in San Diego and LA. Best tomatoes of my life. Some are so sweet it’s like eating a fruit.
I grow tomatoes every year on a porch in 5 gal bags. Usually have fruit to eat from June – Nov.
I will not buy tomatoes from the grocery store. That train left long ago.
It’s criminal really. It goes for a lot of fresh food.
Grocery store tomatoes aren’t real tomatoes. Like buying a wax sculpture isn’t the real thing just looks like it.
Now you get to experiment with all the different heirloom varieties. Welcome to the know.
I remember when I first realized this. Storebought tomato varieties are in large part chosen/altered to be 1. as evenly colored and sized as possible and 2. tough enough to be picked by machine. Flavor and eating texture are secondary concerns. They also are picked when unripe.
People can go most of their lives before eating a homegrown/small farm grown tomato and having that ‘oh’ moment. I swear we’re cheated.
The best is picking one right off the vine in the sun, giving it a good wash and s sprinkle of salt and just going at it, still sun-warm.
Now try a tomato sandwich with mayo(ideally Duke’s), salt and pepper
This is the Way.
I’m the same way, I hate raw tomatoes. Within the last few years I realized I like sungold tomatoes. This year I’m growing 7 different kind of tomatoes and going to try them all. I hope to have similar experience.
I am not a fan of raw tomatoes, even my own, because I was always eating red varieties with no idea that other color varieties tasted different. I got my hands on a big beefy, borderline overripe, yellow one at the farmer’s market last year and took a bite and, wait what?!? Oh, apparently I really really like yellow ones (and orange, I discovered). Wound up eating huge quantities of raw tomatoes by the end of the season. This year, I only planted select red varieties for canning purposes. All of my other, snack/raw tomatoes are yellow and orange
Yet another convert. Grocery store tomatoes are just really bad tomatoes.
Tomatoes from the grocery store don’t taste like much of anything. A good tomato from the garden is worthy of eating sliced up with just salt and pepper.
Grocery store tomatoes are terrible. Its like they took the most bland tasteless tomato shape and gave it red.
Is that a pink Berkeley tie-dye tomato?
Looks just like the ones I grew this season and they were sooo yummy!