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Post by brownrexx on Sept 28, 2020 13:23:56 GMT -5
I do not eat raw tomatoes but I grow plenty of them for DH. I do love cooked tomatoes just not raw ones.
DH says that he can tell the difference in taste of a Fall Tomato and I was wondering if anyone else had noticed a difference? I don't mean green ones ripened indoors but tomatoes still on the vine as the weather gets cooler in the Fall (like now).
Do they taste different to you?
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Post by september on Sept 28, 2020 13:57:34 GMT -5
Yes, as soon as we have a long series of cool nights and cool days, the flavor looses intensity and complexity. Cooked up, there is not much difference, but for fresh eating it's noticeable. Still way better than any store tomato, and varies by tomato variety. Some develop the internal "puffiness" where there are hollow spots, and not much gel. Being north of most of you, this hits me earlier.
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Post by paulf on Sept 28, 2020 14:09:15 GMT -5
I agree with September and for me the change begins in September. Around the third or fourth wave of ripe tomatoes is when it is noticeable. The fruits for me get smaller and are less solid. Still good, better than any store bought, but past peak in flavor. Almost like tomatoes after a lot of watering or rain, the flavor washes out.
This season it began after the second wave.
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Post by Laura_in_FL on Sept 28, 2020 16:30:53 GMT -5
What they said, only for me it's not usually cool enough for tomatoes' flavor to decline until November (the last few weeks before my first frost). And the taste and texture difference is more pronounced with some varieties than others.
Overall, it seems to me that the big beefsteaks deteriorate the most, with cherries and grapes the least affected. Though some hold up well in all size categories. Unfortunately I've never thought to keep records of which varieties do particularly well or particularly poorly in fall.
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Post by paquebot on Sept 28, 2020 19:55:18 GMT -5
Good taste depends upon foliage. Leaves are the plant's sugar factories. When the foliage begins to die, it can't produce the sugar that the fruit needs for good taste. As a result the fall fruit taste bland. To me, they are only good for juice with carrots added to replace the missing sweetness.
Martin
The truth is more important than the facts.
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Post by octave1 on Sept 29, 2020 9:10:50 GMT -5
The taste changes when the plant begins to die. That can happen anytime during the growing season, but it's usually more detectable at the end of Summer when the nights get cool. I personally don't find those tomatoes "inferior". They are still nice for many uses, even salads when mixed with a bunch of other veggies.
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Post by brownrexx on Sept 29, 2020 10:08:52 GMT -5
So interesting. Thanks for the replies. DH also noticed that the Fox cherry tomatoes do not taste like Fall tomatoes at least not so far. I did some Google research after I posted this question yesterday and some scientists say that in cold weather the gene for the volatile organic compounds (the smell) gets turned off. They also mentioned the loss of gel like september , mentioned. We all know that supermarket tomatoes have no taste and we also know that the taste has been lost as they breed them for durability and uniform ripening but some scientists say that another factor is the loss of VOC's (smell) that happens because they store them at 40 - 50° before shipping. I have noticed a nice smell coming from the tomatoes when I have a lot of them on the counter to finish ripening. This must be the VOC's that they talked about. I have been picking all of my tomatoes before they are fully ripe this year and I noticed that the ones picked in warmer weather ripened overnight but the ones picked in cooler weather took 3-4 days to become ripe. DH says that he does not care why, he just knows that they taste different but I was curious as to the reasons. Tomatoes are apparently a much studied and complex fruit.
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Post by octave1 on Sept 29, 2020 13:46:21 GMT -5
So brownrexx , if the gene that's turned off affects the VOC that means we cannot longer "taste" the tomato with our noses. Smell is a major factor when savoring food, and a food we can only taste in our mouth is never going to be perceived as good as something we can taste and smell (think about eating with a cold and a stuffy nose, it's hard to guess what anything tastes like). But this also means that tomatoes do not change flavor, they stay the same. Maybe with a bit less gel, but essentially the same as far as the actual flavor goes. The VOC cessation may be something that affects many fruits and vegetables, and would explain why out -of-season produce is never really flavorful.
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Post by brownrexx on Sept 29, 2020 18:38:50 GMT -5
I cut several green tomatoes today to make fried green tomatoes and I did notice that they were much more dry on the inside with less gel. I had to cut open several to get ones with a decent amount of gel. We fried some with gel and some without and I had to admit that it did not affect the flavor of the finished product. However this is a cooked product so maybe the Fall tomato taste only pertains to eating fresh ones. octave1, the one report did say that the sugar and acid content was the same after cold weather but that the smell was gone.
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