Yep, just like eating cardboard. I sometimes pick up cherries or "Camprari" (sp), but even their flavor isn't reliable.

My comment is on the last time in a fast food. DQ. Tomato showed only a trace of pink. Now I know they get them that way, but they could at least order a few days earlier and let them ripen a little bit. People just don't care any more.

colokid
Is it supposed to ripen on your hamburger - HA
Dennis

Now these URs are supposed to be picked(at least partially)ripe. When I pick a tomato partially ripe, say if a frost is coming, when I set it on the counter for a few days it will ripen and taste ripe. Many people pick their toms with just a blush on if frost threatens or if the variety easily cracks, no? And they continue ripening, am I wrong? I don't see how these URs could have been picked ripe if they didn't "ripen", but just got darker in color. They didn't even have the depth of flavor that a home grown(pre-ripe)green tomato has. I think they picked them way early and gassed them like most other winter toms in the stores. That's false advertising, I tell you! Uh-oh, I'm ranting again...sorry.

My local Publix had "green" tomatoes that were pink and in various ripening stages. They just never get it right do they?

noinwi

I've gotten burned that way so many times I no longer buy tomatoes at grocery stores. How many times have I stood in the produce department looking for the "ripest" (reddest) tomatoes when I KNOW they've all been gassed at the same time! Never again.

We eat lots of bottled salsa, canned and frozen tomatoes in soups and stews, tomato soup, and drink lots of tomato juice during the winter but no cardboard tomatoes will pass my lips anymore. If we can't have it off-the-vine, we won't have it!

Agree with it all . Fast food has terrible toms,at the grocery store the only half way Ok toms are Camparis ,romas and ones with vine still attached ,the last beef steaks sucked bad,so back to Camparis ,atleast they are edible.And to think some people only eat those store bought ones and are clueless to what a tom should even taste like .Poor souls .

And lets all fume about the price for terrible toms too!

Anney,
I have toms in the freezer for salsa and stuff, but sometimes, especially here up north, with no greenhouse or sunny window, you just have to buy a tom or two during the winter. I usually just get the Mexican romas here locally, but I was at WW in another town and their romas were looking pretty bad.
Yeah, the prices. The romas in this small town(there's only one grocer)are about $2/lb, the Campari, although rarely offered here, are twice that. The hothouse toms(usually from Canada)fall in between, the taste being on par with the romas.

That's a creepy company too that produces that variety (and Santa Sweet grapes).

They have had all kinds of issues with breaking laws concerning spraying in several states. Even changed the company name to try to deflect the bad PR it created.

I too bought an awful winter Ugly Ripe a few years back and saved seeds from it. Though I didn't try to grow them myself, I shared some of the seeds and was told they didn't germinate. My guess was that since it had been picked while green, or pretty green, that it affected the seeds even though I had let it ripen some after I bought it.

I'd be interested to hear if yours germinate for you.

Sue

I hear you! Nasty tasting grocery tomatoes over here too. I bought one Roma that was red on the outside and hard and green on the inside. Ewww. The Campari and grape ones are pretty good. In fact, the grape ones I just got are very sweet.

I saved seeds last year from beefsteak, roma, and Campari grocery toms. They had a good rate of germination. Interestingly enough, they germinated (WITH the gel coating them even) twice as fast as the commercial seed I bought. Plants were very vigorous too, although they had more trouble with diseases later on. The romas and beefsteak tasted just as bad as buying from the store, lol. Only the Campari were good.

Every year I get seedlings from my grocery grape tomatoes. Taste is great. The first year the plants were sickly, but the ones that come up now are very healthy.
CMK

I count myself fortunate when it comes to grocery store maters...

In my area (Omaha NE) Hy-Vee grocery stores carry a line of tomatoes that are greenhouse-grown in O'Neill, Nebraska (about 200 mi NW of Omaha). For a store-bought tomato, they're outstanding.

FWIW, I did a germ test and 8 out of 10 seeds sprouted. I'll add it to my grow list this year and see how it does.