The Frontal Cortex

At least the heirlooms and more traditional hybrid tomatoes remain available. I only eat fresh tomatoes in season that are home grown or locally grown. There's never been an edible supermarket tomato as far as I can tell.

Unfortunately, we also seem to be heading in the direction of all sweet and no real flavor for corn as well. The early sweet hybrids that partially disabled the enzyme that turns sugar to starch helped corn stay fresh longer than a couple hours, but the more recent super-sweet varieties are more dessert than vegetable.

Posted by: chezjake | May 17, 2008 11:31 AM

All I can say is that I'm glad we don't have anything as crazy as the EU seeds marketing directives over on this side of the pond. While our mass produced crop varieties can be nothing short of dreadful we don't, yet at least, have to resort to the black market to get ahold of heirloom seed varieties.

Posted by: phisrow | May 17, 2008 11:59 AM

You're making me want to dig out and reread one of my favorite books, "Can You Trust a Tomato in January." My URL link above (or wherever) is really the Amazon link to it.

Posted by: quisp | May 17, 2008 1:36 PM

Tomatoes are tolerable: we get fresh heirlooms from local farms and the two closest markets are run by Italians who take these things seriously. Pineapple and bananas, on the other hand, are painfully limited to the super-sweet insipid varieties.

I grew up near what was probably the only banana plantation in the continental US (which folded, unfortunately) - there are a couple dozen varieties I've never seen in stores. At least the indian places have the lady-fingers and plaintains but it's still largely a Dole world.

Posted by: Chris Adams | May 17, 2008 2:15 PM

This is for Gray and others who love apples! One of the delights of farmer's markets in the Baltimore area is the Reid's Orchards stand. Dave and Kathy Reid grow 100 kinds of apple and 60 of them are heirloom varities from the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries from France, England and other European countries. The orchard is in Buchanan Valley, PA, 15 miles west of Gettysburg, so perhaps they sell at other markets in the area. I have a farm in Maine that sends me Red Astrakhans to make pink applesauce so maybe the Reid's will mail apples as well.
To read an excellent article about this orchard and the apples google Reid's Orchards, Buchanan Valley, PA and look for an article in Urbanite Magazine #28, October '06. The Reids are also very environmentally conscious and use as green an aproach as is possible with apples.

Posted by: jb | May 17, 2008 6:32 PM

One big problem with a lot of vegetables and fruit is that they were bred for transport. In many cases this allowed nearly untransportable fruits to move around the country. (Say stawberries) But what you get frankly...sucks. But then just don't buy your vegetables and fruit at the local grocery store (or at least not ones that don't have a better selection)

Now that companies are breeding or engineering for particular tastes I don't see the problem. Already even my "mainstream" grocery stores have something like 20 different kinds of tomatoes. (And that's ignoring the sun dried or canned stuff or pastes) My local garden center had starters of a ridiculous amount of tomatoes - and that's just what grows easily here. I'm sure in the east coast or Napa valley there are more.

So for industrial use where things are a bit trickier I certainly don't have trouble. I think the biggest new movement is organic and specialty farms anywhere. So I think we'll be seeing a big increase in the number and variety of fruit, vegetables and even meats.

Posted by: Clark | May 17, 2008 10:48 PM

I think you are wrong about the Heinz tomato initiative. They are trying to bread a tomato for flavor. This is pretty much the opposite of what has happened to the supermarket fruits and vegetables you whine about. Those were manipulated for looks and ease of shipping, not for flavor. That's pretty much the whole problem.

Posted by: Tegumai Bopsulai, FCD | May 18, 2008 12:57 PM

for Gray: I live in Maryland and get apples sent by mail or UPS from Maine, or they come with me after a visit in my baggage on a plane. Of course, the greener way to make pink applesauce is to use local Staymans which a neighbor grows across the street, I discovered last fall.

Posted by: jb | May 18, 2008 3:12 PM

Anyone have a report on phosphatidylserine; I take it whenever I have a particularly mental task ahead of me. It's found at health food stores as "promoting brain function."

Posted by: Tom Taylor | May 21, 2008 5:04 PM

My boyfriend buys tomatoes all the time at a local grocery store- we live in Pa.--now on the tomato itself a small sticker says "locally grown". I've grown up in my grandparents garden--worked in amarket where we sold produce---and over the years grew some of my own tomatoes. The ones in the store to me taste bland---are hard and and have a tough skin---when i worked at the market I found out to my surprise that some of these so called "local" tomatoes were from Jersey or Florida. MY man and i had a debate about this topic this morning...he insisted if it says local-- they were from the area....I said..No...if you go to a farm where they grew their own veggies..or anyone who has a garden....you wil SEE Taste the difference. I'm tryin to find some data that will help me support this ---THERE is a DEFINATE taste and testure difference... can someone help me out as to WHY people can put this "local" sticker on something that isn't....AND... point out the DISTINCE differences in taste from garden...local farm tomatoes versus ones sent from florida or jersey..Thanks so much~

Posted by: christie | September 28, 2008 11:07 AM