Tomatoes "On The Vine"

superscaper

Voyager2002 wrote: »

Of course, it is possible that some merchants will supply higher-quality tomatoes on the vine than otherwise, or take more care about how they are transported. In much the same way that organic vegetables are generally no better than the equivalent non-organic ones, but often what is offered as organic is actually of higher quality than what is non-organic.

I think that's what I was getting at. The tomatoes on the vine that we get genuinely are of a higher quality than the loose ones. As I've already said you can see they're even a completely different shade of colour (easy to tell the difference between which ones were loose and which ones were taken from vine packaging) so it's not my imagination. They must pick different ones for the vine packaging which hasn't got anything to do with the vine itself but explains the correlation I've seen. Can obviously only really go by my personal experience in my area and can't speak for whether this happens nationally or not but there is a huge difference between the two where I am.

chika

Just to add my 2p - Vine tomatoes taste much much better than the slightly cheaper loose ones. They have been left to gow for longer so they develop a nicer taste.

If you are that bothered about paying for a stalk just do what I do and "pick" the best looking reddest toms off the vine before placing them in the bag

stamford

chika wrote: »

If you are that bothered about paying for a stalk just do what I do and "pick" the best looking reddest toms off the vine before placing them in the bag

Nice one but Tesco's still win by no longer offering cheaper loose non "vine" toms.

This will make you laugh.......... I bought in the same Tesco branch some pre packed "VALUE" tomatos 'cos they were cheaper and not as large as the bag yourself vine ones. They were from that country with a rich heritage of tomato cultivation POLAND - and they were on the vine :rotfl:

dangeroussports

taxi97w wrote: »

This is the second time today I have seen you use the word Europeans. We are Europeans. What you mean is Continentals.

Thanks. Pedantry over;)

Ohh la la our European cousin's dont do pendantic. Ooh la la you must be American.

lokiman

I'm sure the supermarkets have changed this, but tomatoes on the vine used to taste much better because they had been naturally ripened on the vine, as opposed to being gassed to give the appearance of being ripe when they actually were not. Ever wondered why some tomatoes that look so red and delicious taste of nothing? That's why: they've been treated with [SIZE=-1]Ethylene gas, which turns them red but, in fact, they aren't really ripe.
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Voyager2002

lokiman wrote: »

I'm sure the supermarkets have changed this, but tomatoes on the vine used to taste much better because they had been naturally ripened on the vine, as opposed to being gassed to give the appearance of being ripe when they actually were not. Ever wondered why some tomatoes that look so red and delicious taste of nothing? That's why: they've been treated with [SIZE=-1]Ethylene gas, which turns them red but, in fact, they aren't really ripe.[/SIZE]

Interesting point. Actually, treatment with ethylene stimulates exactly the same processes that naturally take place as a fruit ripens. Whether the end result looks and tastes as good as if it had ripened in the sun is a matter of opinion, but in biological terms the process is exactly the same.

There are lots of other reasons why some tomatoes may have no flavour. I suspect that only lower-quality varieties are ripened with ethyleneand these would have no flavour not matter how they were treated. Conversely, the highest quality ones would probably be full of flavour even if they were ripened artificially.

lokiman

Voyager2002 wrote: »

Interesting point. Actually, treatment with ethylene stimulates exactly the same processes that naturally take place as a fruit ripens. Whether the end result looks and tastes as good as if it had ripened in the sun is a matter of opinion, but in biological terms the process is exactly the same.

There are lots of other reasons why some tomatoes may have no flavour. I suspect that only lower-quality varieties are ripened with ethyleneand these would have no flavour not matter how they were treated. Conversely, the highest quality ones would probably be full of flavour even if they were ripened artificially.

Well, I don't profess to be an expert, but my neighbour, who runs a commercial horticulture operation over the road from me, and who supplies the local area with tomatoes and cucumbers, assures me that the practice of gassing tomatoes is widespread and, in fact, does not produce the same quality of taste as naturally ripening tomatoes.