# Are tasty tomatoes extinct? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 14, 2015, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-tasty-tomatoes-extinct/722529 "2015-06-14T20:30:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2015, 11:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-tasty-tomatoes-extinct/722529/41 "2015-06-16T11:01:55Z")
> [@usedtobe](#): > > Here’s an example of why your store-bought tomatoes are crap: > > [They’re bred for machine harvesting](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3EpFTyN26E) Of course the ones in that video are only used for canned sauces etc. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2015, 1:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-tasty-tomatoes-extinct/722529/42 "2015-06-16T13:15:53Z")
In the past two or so years, our local supermarket has started stocking “heirloom tomatoes” for chunks of the year (they don’t tell the variety, they just call them “heirlooms.”) They’re big and bulbous and irregularly-shaped, and they go bad quickly–but they’re very tasty. Since we have a lot of trouble growing our own tomatoes, I buy these pretty regularly. Tomatoes, along with cantaloupes and peaches and a few other produce items, are best purchased by smell, not appearance. A nasty-looking tomato or peach can be a great buy if it smells awesome, whereas a perfect-looking one that doesn’t have an odor is going to be terrible. ---
**Author:** ![california\_jobcase](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9d8465/32.png) [@california\_jobcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/california_jobcase)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2015, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-tasty-tomatoes-extinct/722529/43 "2015-06-16T13:36:07Z")
Location matters. I have grown tomatoes in Indiana and south Georgia. No matter the variety, the southern maters were never as good as the northern ones. They were definitely better than the store-bought ones, however. Georgia mountain-grown ones are pretty good. I have read that tomatoes don’t ripen well when the nights are nearly as hot as the day, and that’s south Georgia weather. ---
**Author:** ![Motorgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e36b37/32.png) [@Motorgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Motorgirl)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2015, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-tasty-tomatoes-extinct/722529/44 "2015-06-16T13:46:20Z")
> [@PlumBob](#): > > The squirrels in my neighborhood are very familiar with the “magical window”. I have to pick early or they will snatch the ripest, eat half and leave the un-eaten half mockingly perched on a fence post. OMFG the goddamn squirrels!!! ETA: my husband has an ongoing battle with the squirrels, and finally understands why his grandfather used to set up ambushes with a bb gun. The most infuriating part, as you mentioned, is that they don’t finish what they steal, they just ruin it. They will sometimes nibble the unripe eggplants and peppers to see if they are ready and then abandon them to rot after being infected with their nasty squirrel cooties. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2015, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-tasty-tomatoes-extinct/722529/45 "2015-06-16T14:07:35Z")
> [@usedtobe](#): > > Here’s an example of why your store-bought tomatoes are crap: > > [They’re bred for machine harvesting](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3EpFTyN26E) Sure, but what does that mean? My guess is that being bred for machine harvesting primarily means that they’re extremely determinate. Or in other words, every tomato on every plant in that field will ripen at the same exact rate. There’s probably a component of size involved as well- they want them to be uniformly sized I’m guessing. Those varieties are undoubtedly also bred for resistance to whatever diseases are common where they’re grown. Beyond that, they clearly harvest them unripe, or else they’d disintegrate, regardless of variety. So ultimately the upshot is that taste is probably fourth priority for large-scale commercial farmers, after determinacy, size and disease resistance. And like **samclem** points out, they’re likely used for cooked applications, for which these tomatoes taste identical to the relatively unproductive and unpredictable heirloom varieties. Once you’re cooking them down, any delicate aroma and flavor compounds go away. (I know; I’ve made tomato sauce from perfectly ripe home-grown heirloom varieties, and I’ve made it from store-bought 80 cent/lb “roma” tomatoes, and can’t tell the difference in the end product. Raw… well, that’s a whole other story. ---
**Author:** ![LateComer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/b5ac83/32.png) [@LateComer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LateComer)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2015, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-tasty-tomatoes-extinct/722529/46 "2015-06-18T13:25:38Z")
[Heirloom recommendation](http://tatianastomatobase.com/wiki/Limbaugh%E2%80%99s_Legacy_Potato_Top). They’re hard to get though. I have one plant growing now. I haven’t had a decent grocery store tomato in years. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2015, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-tasty-tomatoes-extinct/722529/47 "2015-06-18T13:30:50Z")
I tore off the previous day’s page on my Old Farmer’s Almanac desk calendar, and was confronted with the story of the “Mortgage Lifter” tomato, bred in 1930 by M.C. Byles, a radiator repairman in Logan, WV. It was “so tasty that customers flocked to buy seedlings. In 6 years, he had enough money to pay his $6000 mortgage…” Hence the name. If you Google “Mortgage Lifter tomato” you get lots of hits, like this: [http://www.burpee.com/vegetables/tomatoes/beefsteak/tomato-mortgage-lifter-prod000998.html](http://www.burpee.com/vegetables/tomatoes/beefsteak/tomato-mortgage-lifter-prod000998.html) ---
**Author:** ![AllShookDown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d9b06d/32.png) [@AllShookDown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AllShookDown)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2015, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-tasty-tomatoes-extinct/722529/48 "2015-06-18T13:56:54Z")
I’ve had mortgage lifters. They’re pretty good but VERY thin skinned. Even when bought at the farmers market you have to be really careful handling them. I’m growing Cherokee Purple, Green Zebra and something called Brown Boar, which is a cross between Green Zebra and something else. I got the plants at the farmers market. ---
**Author:** ![CC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f1d935/32.png) [@CC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CC)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2015, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-tasty-tomatoes-extinct/722529/49 "2015-06-18T14:35:22Z")
Ok. The takeaway: Grow some heirloom tomatoes and eat them when you pick them. Thanks, Dopers. ---
**Author:** ![jimbuff314](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c57346/32.png) [@jimbuff314](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jimbuff314)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2015, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-tasty-tomatoes-extinct/722529/50 "2015-06-18T15:21:02Z")
Our Mortgage Lifters are producing and we’re having them in sandwiches. Incredible tomato-y taste with a distinct smokiness (and hints of oak and tannins). They don’t seem particularly thin-skinned to me. The Cherokee Purples are still slowly ripening. ---
**Author:** ![DummyGladHands](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/49beb7/32.png) [@DummyGladHands](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DummyGladHands)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2015, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-tasty-tomatoes-extinct/722529/51 "2015-06-18T16:03:40Z")
Arizona person here. Whatever you home gardeners out here are growing that’s red and tomato-like, I don’t want it. I am going to Cape Cod in a month or so. I will be haunting the farmers roadside stands for sun warmed REAL tomatoes. ---
**Author:** ![Grestarian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grestarian/32/3227_2.png) [@Grestarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grestarian)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2015, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-tasty-tomatoes-extinct/722529/52 "2015-06-18T22:13:52Z")
Find and follow the TomatoMania fad and/or its local equivalent in your area (I think this link is to the SoCal variety: [http://www.tomatomania.com/](http://www.tomatomania.com/) ). I’m figuring if the different types of tomato are coming from all around the country, then they should also be available via these little ‘conventions’ across the country as well. You’d just want to get to a sale on the right weekend and hunt around a bit. I’d think you could find a vine or three that will suit your tastes. –G! I generally have a black thumb. Lately it’s been getting red-ish… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-tasty-tomatoes-extinct/722529.md?page=2)