digitS'
Garden Master
@AMKuska , obviously it was the flower end of the banana that was richer and creamier (drawing from my own taste trials).
It's interesting that the only vegetable Seed' mentioned was okra in the original post but the conversation immediately turned to tomatoes. (Good thing that he didn't mention beans sssshhhhhh
).
There is a huge number of tomato varieties. I'd be surprised if the number of those grown commercially comes anywhere near 10% of those kept in family gardens from every corner of the world. I remember an interview with an author who had little interest in writing about tomatoes until he was on the road, following a truck carrying a load of tomatoes out of a farm field. Tomatoes began to fall off the truck - they bounced!
Of course they did. Those tomatoes were harvested before they were fully ripe and were a variety that was suitable for shipping. We have some popular varieties that the plant breeders were hoping to sell for commercial purposes but were failures. Notable among those is Early Girl, probably still the most popular home garden variety in the US.
Okay, after say 40 years of Early Girl in over half of the American gardens, what have most Americans grown up thinking of as "vine-ripened tomato" flavor? It wouldn't surprise me if it's Early Girl. Tastes are unique but experiences are limited. It could be that many of those "kids" would prefer a variety with different flavor or, at least, appreciate it as much. When they gain those experiences, they just might decide that it's "the one" and not the ones that were picked and shipped green and in their supermarket. Given enough time, they might experience some of the many, many varieties and become true tomato aficionados. What are they waiting for?!
There once was several popular tomato tasting festivals in Carmel California, upstate New York, Kansas City - from those that I have read about. The tasters weren't wearing blindfolds. I imagine that they were influenced by the appearance of the fruit. But something that I really suspect was true - the fruit was also harvested from different locations. What is it in wine production - an AVA? I bet it is even more significant for tomatoes than grapes. When I read about the area in South America where native tomatoes grow, I am impressed with how unique the climate sounds. And yet, tomatoes are grown in all sorts of climates, by gardeners! Something of an aside, I once read a kind of an educated guess that civilization began in those places where wine grapes were grown. Human interest in wine was such that specialized labor and skills were appreciated. Trading wine for food and other essentials developed. Other crafts developed modeled on that ... cities grew ... civilization! Well, anyway
.
Steve
oh! here's a Mother Earth News article on "Best Tomatoes" where they used ideas from experts and websites that compiled individual ratings. it's more than 10 years old so there are now more varieties to catch up on! LINK
It's interesting that the only vegetable Seed' mentioned was okra in the original post but the conversation immediately turned to tomatoes. (Good thing that he didn't mention beans sssshhhhhh
).There is a huge number of tomato varieties. I'd be surprised if the number of those grown commercially comes anywhere near 10% of those kept in family gardens from every corner of the world. I remember an interview with an author who had little interest in writing about tomatoes until he was on the road, following a truck carrying a load of tomatoes out of a farm field. Tomatoes began to fall off the truck - they bounced!
Of course they did. Those tomatoes were harvested before they were fully ripe and were a variety that was suitable for shipping. We have some popular varieties that the plant breeders were hoping to sell for commercial purposes but were failures. Notable among those is Early Girl, probably still the most popular home garden variety in the US.
Okay, after say 40 years of Early Girl in over half of the American gardens, what have most Americans grown up thinking of as "vine-ripened tomato" flavor? It wouldn't surprise me if it's Early Girl. Tastes are unique but experiences are limited. It could be that many of those "kids" would prefer a variety with different flavor or, at least, appreciate it as much. When they gain those experiences, they just might decide that it's "the one" and not the ones that were picked and shipped green and in their supermarket. Given enough time, they might experience some of the many, many varieties and become true tomato aficionados. What are they waiting for?!
There once was several popular tomato tasting festivals in Carmel California, upstate New York, Kansas City - from those that I have read about. The tasters weren't wearing blindfolds. I imagine that they were influenced by the appearance of the fruit. But something that I really suspect was true - the fruit was also harvested from different locations. What is it in wine production - an AVA? I bet it is even more significant for tomatoes than grapes. When I read about the area in South America where native tomatoes grow, I am impressed with how unique the climate sounds. And yet, tomatoes are grown in all sorts of climates, by gardeners! Something of an aside, I once read a kind of an educated guess that civilization began in those places where wine grapes were grown. Human interest in wine was such that specialized labor and skills were appreciated. Trading wine for food and other essentials developed. Other crafts developed modeled on that ... cities grew ... civilization! Well, anyway
.Steve
oh! here's a Mother Earth News article on "Best Tomatoes" where they used ideas from experts and websites that compiled individual ratings. it's more than 10 years old so there are now more varieties to catch up on! LINK
) but I'm not out to make converts. All gardeners make their own choices... and that is as it should be. Gardening is, by its nature, an act of freedom & individuality.
I don’t worry about eating the future of the world out of my garden. I just pity the ones that eat store bought. 
are there even GMO bananas?
