Any of them before soil depletion and banana blight. Fruits and veggies tasted so much better in the 80s. Melons in particular taste lifeless now. Once in a while I strike gold at the local farmer’s market or in our own garden.
That said, heirlooms do have all kinds of crazy flavors and differences.
Yeah, I’d bet that some of them don’t last as long as the standard red tomatoes that you get in the store, but looking through heirloom tomatoes is kind of a trip, from a visual standpoint. Grocery stores seem to have pretty much standardized on about three red ones – and I’m not saying that they’re bad, but it does kind of mean that people don’t get to see a lot of variety. Unfortunately, I’m not a huge fan of just eating tomatoes plain, so never got super-interested in obtaining them, but they do look damned cool.
That’s pretty much the case with any produce at the grocery store these days. It’s all picked too green. It makes me sad because I haven’t had a legit ripe avocado in ages.
Any of them before soil depletion and banana blight. Fruits and veggies tasted so much better in the 80s. Melons in particular taste lifeless now. Once in a while I strike gold at the local farmer’s market or in our own garden.
And tomatoes. Tomatoes used to be amazing. Even the worst ones were amazing.
Now they just taste like “wet”. If you want a good tomato you have to track down lovingly and carefully bred heirloom plants and grow them yourself.
Nah. Even a Burpee is good.
The main thing that ruins store tomatoes is that they pick them green and breed them for travel.
Pretty much any tomato plant that you buy will be bred for taste and resistance.
That said, heirlooms do have all kinds of crazy flavors and differences.
I bought a rainbow tomato seed pack, it had like 7-10 different varieties, I don’t actually remember.
The white tomatoes were a trip, with your eyes open they taste tart, but with your eyes closed they just taste like a really good tomato.
Yeah, I’d bet that some of them don’t last as long as the standard red tomatoes that you get in the store, but looking through heirloom tomatoes is kind of a trip, from a visual standpoint. Grocery stores seem to have pretty much standardized on about three red ones – and I’m not saying that they’re bad, but it does kind of mean that people don’t get to see a lot of variety. Unfortunately, I’m not a huge fan of just eating tomatoes plain, so never got super-interested in obtaining them, but they do look damned cool.
googles
Here’s a retailer that has images:
https://www.tradewindsfruit.com/tomatoes/
goes through looking for some interesting ones
Black Beauty
Cascade Village Blue
Dark Galaxy
Dwarf Lemon Ice
Flaming Burst
Gobstopper
Green Grape
Green Zebra
Kryptonite
Midnight Tiger
Mint Julep
Painted Lady
Thai Pink Egg
Violet Jasper
Check out rareseeds.com they have so many different old heirloom seeds from all kinds of different plants.
The company name is baker creek
That’s pretty much the case with any produce at the grocery store these days. It’s all picked too green. It makes me sad because I haven’t had a legit ripe avocado in ages.
Put it in a paper bag for a day or two, let the ethylene build up and it’ll ripen it?
Can put a banana in there with the avocados if you really want it to go quickly.
That’s not the same as ripened on the tree, though.
Yeah, they’ll soften up a bit letting them ripen in a bag, but they won’t taste anywhere near a good as one ripened on the tree a bit longer.
Oooh white tomatoes. Ever had the purple ones? Or the ripe green varieties?
Yeah! They had white, yellow, green, red, purple, black, orange. I think it may have just been the seven.
I could never figure out when the green ones were ripe
OMG, yes. The flavor “wet” has been added to my lexicon.
Melons taste just as good to me now as the 80s or 90s.