Tomatoes, Where Have Thy Tastes Gone?

 The plight of the modern tomatoes!

Each and every time I do the same. Tomatoes beckon me with their siren red colour but then I glance at their price tag and walk to the next vegetable. But oh, they look so nice and isn't a bright colour a sign of a life elixir? Back I go and debate the various offers on display.

Therein lies the rub. So many different tomatoes. Be they cherry or loose but all expensive. I forgot how and if they were pricey in South Africa, but here it is often cheaper to buy a packet of ham, salami or cheese than a pound of tomatoes. Unless one buys the budget brands. The cheap supermarket offerings which on most products are almost the same than the high-end labelled ones but sadly, that assumptions stops when it comes to tomatoes.

They look the same, they feel the same but oh boy, they don't taste the same. In fact they taste of blandness and cardboard. A waste even at their cheap price but somehow I end up putting them into our shopping trolley. Stupid really and a bit reminiscent of what Einstein said; insanity: doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results! 

On the other hand, trying to stay one step ahead of this exact dilemma ( because we get caught out year after year )  Bob and I especially went to a plant market in April so that we could buy several tomato plants. Which we did, and which we planted but which are still refusing to turn red and the odd one that has, we have to compete with a horde of snails...

Maybe tomatoes are what is wrong with the climate? We mass produce, we outsource we fertilize with chemicals for fun and we strip natures' goodness off soils and thus off nature's products oh, and we want to pay as little as possible. The only way to change it is to vote with our wallets...ie. stop buying the cheap tasteless imitations of tomatoes ( meat / cheese / lettuce / anything ) and rather save up to buy the real scrumptous tasting ones...

Biggi