Tasteless supermarket tomatoes - Let's campaign!

snowmaid

I have 3 tomatoes in grow bags, then I am trying the 'hundreds and thousands' in hanging baskets, hopefully these will give me my little salad tomatoes. It is so easy and certainly tastes a lot better.

In fact, on my decking, I am also growing peas, strawberries, potatoes in sacks and my herbs. Then I have cucumbers and egg plant growing in the plastic greenhouse. This is besides what I have on the allotment.

GROW YOUR OWN! :T:T

Primrose

Interesting discussion but all this is rather straying from the point. What I was trying to do was try and encourage people to e-mail the main supermarkets and ask them to start stocking the varieties of flavoursome tomatoes which we all enjoy eating. Supermarkets eventually have to start listening to their customers. Surely if enough of us start demanding tomatoes grown for flavour rather than shape or uniformity of size and for them to be labelled by variety, they might start to listen.

MRSMCAWBER

Im allready growing 42 tomato plants -21 varieties(with loads of other things on my potio appotment) so will have plenty for summer and to roast and freeze. Its a case of having to rely on the shop ones once summer is over... but then we pretty much switch onto winter menus -so very rarely buy any once summer is over ....

Zazen999

Primrose wrote: »

Interesting discussion but all this is rather straying from the point. What I was trying to do was try and encourage people to e-mail the main supermarkets and ask them to start stocking the varieties of flavoursome tomatoes which we all enjoy eating. Supermarkets eventually have to start listening to their customers. Surely if enough of us start demanding tomatoes grown for flavour rather than shape or uniformity of size and for them to be labelled by variety, they might start to listen.

I'd rather not, if its all the same. I avoid supermarkets and only buy from them when I have to...I certainly don't want them to stock decent tomatoes and charge a hefty price for them. I'd rather they all crashed and burned and we got back to local seasonal shopping.

Lotus-eater

Primrose wrote: »

Interesting discussion but all this is rather straying from the point. What I was trying to do was try and encourage people to e-mail the main supermarkets and ask them to start stocking the varieties of flavoursome tomatoes which we all enjoy eating. Supermarkets eventually have to start listening to their customers. Surely if enough of us start demanding tomatoes grown for flavour rather than shape or uniformity of size and for them to be labelled by variety, they might start to listen.

Let's be realistic here, that just isn't going to happen.

Can I compare it to the free range chicken thing? Some people get all worked up about it, complain, big campaign, how many people are still doing it a few months after it aired (on mainstream tv)? 5%...... 3%?

And that was about an animal !!!!!!, not a tomato. Mainstream customers will continue to buy tasteless tomatoes, customers like us will continue to grow our own and buy the better tasting tomatoes from shops (the range of which is getting better btw, you just have to spend more)

Don't forget we are in a recession, peoples grocery bills are coming down, not going up.

BTW, I still think this should be on the greenfingered board
But maybe now we are getting to a wider audience. <shout> Grow your own tomatoes..... umm, you scum </shout>

[Deleted User]

paulwf wrote: »

I had a customer complaining about the flavour of the strawberries in February, what do you expect a strawberry to taste like when it is snowing outside?

Best laugh of the day so far for me, thank you

Pro-tip on tomatoes: Italy is well known for having lots of lovely home cooking using tomatoes. Do you know what most people there do when tomatoes aren't in season? They don't go down to the supermarket and buy whatever rubbish has just been boated in from Florida. They just use tinned Italian ones instead. True story.

[Deleted User]

I bought piccolo tomatoes from T a few times this week and they are gorgeous

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

olly300 wrote: »

If you want tomatoes or any fruit and veg to taste of something and flowers that smell then don't buy them from a supermarket.

Supermarkets stuff has to keep so they shove everything in the fridge so it lasts longer. Small retailers (unless they are convenience stores) don't charge more than supermarkets for fruit, veg and flowers. For example my greengrocer down the road sells all this stuff cheaper than supermarkets and it all has taste/smell.

Fair enough, but surely small shops have refrigerators too?

All four local florists all buy their flowers from the refrigerated lorries too. Apparently, they can't get hold of scented roses, as the only ones available from the suppliers are the scentless visually perfect ones. And they are all significantly more expensive than the supermarkets for things that are no more visually or olfactorily appealing (no idea if that's a real word or not). A hesitant enquiry about Fairtrade or organic elicited laughter.

Maybe I'm the only person in the country in the only area who doesn't have shops brimming with local seasonal organic produce that never, ever goes off, within 10 minutes walk/bus.

So in effect, what you are really saying to me is don't buy flowers - as I don't have a garden (or access to an allotment) , I'll just have to do without, which is what I am already having to do. And it saddens me to do so.