Quality of fruit and veg
Discussion
The tomatoes in our local greengrocer's cost between €2/Kg and €15/Kg.
The cheaper one's are horrible, rock hard with no taste. From about €7/Kg they start tasting good and have a nice texture. Those at €15 are utterly delicious, darker in colour and very juicy and sweet.
But what is it that makes them taste differently from each other and moreover why does the cost differ so?
The cheaper one's are horrible, rock hard with no taste. From about €7/Kg they start tasting good and have a nice texture. Those at €15 are utterly delicious, darker in colour and very juicy and sweet.
But what is it that makes them taste differently from each other and moreover why does the cost differ so?
Differing varieties I should imagine. Just like bananas, we accept a tomato as a tomato with little thought about its variety, how it's grown etc. A few years ago I was at a market in northern France and the selection of tomatoes on sale on one stall stretched for about 30 feet and they were all colours, shapes and sizes.
Varieties, soil types, climate etc.
Cheap tomatoes will be a strain designed to be fast growing, low maintenance, high yeild, easy to transport/keep etc wheras nicer toms will take longer to grow and ripen and be more sensitive to climate, pests, storage conditions, so need faster transportation etc
Cheap tomatoes will be a strain designed to be fast growing, low maintenance, high yeild, easy to transport/keep etc wheras nicer toms will take longer to grow and ripen and be more sensitive to climate, pests, storage conditions, so need faster transportation etc
Depends where you are in the world but trying to buy in "local" season makes a huge difference. In winter I can get courgettes and peppers grown thousands of miles away. Quality is good but very expensive. Ones grown under glass closer to home are cheaper but rubbish.
In the UK I can pay £15 for a 6kg box of really poor quality imported salad tomatoes in the winter and £6 a box for good local ones in the summer.
The best place I have found for fruit and veg is the south of France. Even their hypermarkets carry predominantly seasonal produce.
In the UK I can pay £15 for a 6kg box of really poor quality imported salad tomatoes in the winter and £6 a box for good local ones in the summer.
The best place I have found for fruit and veg is the south of France. Even their hypermarkets carry predominantly seasonal produce.
O/H came home with a cucumber from M&S a few days ago. It looked horrible when we sliced it so went back. They reckoned it had been frozen before they received it and withdrew all remaining from sale on the spot. We don't often find quality problems when we shop at Aldi, as we mostly do; it's the 'big boys' that seem to be the worst.
Driller said:
Thanks for the interesting info. This is in France BTW. The growing time makes a lot of sense, didn't think of that. I also heard that the cheaper ones aren't grown in soil at all but a sort of chemical soup which is a horrible idea!
Hydroponics, its the future... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HydroponicsSurprised you are having trouble in France! I am normally around the Fitou area as that's where family are, guess it is a bit of a growing area and Spain/Italy are only a few hours away by truck.
mike74 said:
Funnily enough I was going to start a thread about the abysmal quality of spuds these days, it doesn't matter where I buy them from I seem to end up throwing about a third of them away due to manky black rot and weevil holes running deep in to them.
Yes! Tesco 'Redmere Farms' potatoes - never again! Just a sample from today -
A bag of carrots were similarly rotten at the ends. I'll stick to loose veg in the future!
t. They also seem to be various made up strains - 'sweetclems' or other stupid names to disguise whatever they actually are.It is worth trying to grow your own veg to understand this sort of thing if nothing else - here in the north of Scotland I can only harvest tomatoes from approx. late July to September in an unheated greenhouse, growing 2-3 varieties. They have more flavour than anything you can buy though!
If I heated the greenhouse maybe I could make it June to October. But the early/late ones would probably be missing something.
If I installed some UV lights maybe I would get that something back, and if I didn't mind the electricity hit maybe I could grow year round.
You get the idea .. as others have already said it is about seasonality and cost of either transport from sunnier climes or heat and light to simulate them.
I don't bother with fresh tomatoes outside of the summer months myself!
Rotten onions and potatoes - again seasonality, the ones we are getting now have been in storage for 8 months or more, the odd one will be a bit worse off for it.
If I heated the greenhouse maybe I could make it June to October. But the early/late ones would probably be missing something.
If I installed some UV lights maybe I would get that something back, and if I didn't mind the electricity hit maybe I could grow year round.
You get the idea .. as others have already said it is about seasonality and cost of either transport from sunnier climes or heat and light to simulate them.
I don't bother with fresh tomatoes outside of the summer months myself!
Rotten onions and potatoes - again seasonality, the ones we are getting now have been in storage for 8 months or more, the odd one will be a bit worse off for it.
Jambo85 said:
It is worth trying to grow your own veg to understand this sort of thing if nothing else - here in the north of Scotland I can only harvest tomatoes from approx. late July to September in an unheated greenhouse, growing 2-3 varieties. They have more flavour than anything you can buy though!
If I heated the greenhouse maybe I could make it June to October. But the early/late ones would probably be missing something.
If I installed some UV lights maybe I would get that something back, and if I didn't mind the electricity hit maybe I could grow year round.
You get the idea .. as others have already said it is about seasonality and cost of either transport from sunnier climes or heat and light to simulate them.
I don't bother with fresh tomatoes outside of the summer months myself!
Rotten onions and potatoes - again seasonality, the ones we are getting now have been in storage for 8 months or more, the odd one will be a bit worse off for it.
I grow my own veg and always look forward to harvesting fresh produce- the flavour is far superior to supermarket stuff.If I heated the greenhouse maybe I could make it June to October. But the early/late ones would probably be missing something.
If I installed some UV lights maybe I would get that something back, and if I didn't mind the electricity hit maybe I could grow year round.
You get the idea .. as others have already said it is about seasonality and cost of either transport from sunnier climes or heat and light to simulate them.
I don't bother with fresh tomatoes outside of the summer months myself!
Rotten onions and potatoes - again seasonality, the ones we are getting now have been in storage for 8 months or more, the odd one will be a bit worse off for it.
Potatoes and onions for example could have been stored for months before being put on sale - pointless purchasing such stuff.
dazco said:
Driller said:
I'll be coming over to the UK for a visit and was thinking I'd try and find a place to buy decent produce beforehand.
So...where does one go to get decent fruit and veg. Are greengrocers a dead cert?
I'll get flamed for this, but I'm ready So...where does one go to get decent fruit and veg. Are greengrocers a dead cert?
Marks and Spencers
Otherwise, what is the quality like in local greengrocers? In France the greengrocers tend to be much better quality than the supermarkets.
A lot of tomatoes are picked green, transported and then 'ripened' with the use of ethylene gas, and not left to ripen naturally on the plant. Generally, the hard ones have been rushed through, and aren't really ripe, and the soft, juicy flavourful ones have been ripened naturally, this takes a while and costs more. It also cost more to transport ripened tomatoes as they are very delicate, and people wont buy them with skin blemishes. Green tomatoes are harder.
Edited by cbmotorsport on Wednesday 28th June 16:54
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