Does anyone know why you can't get these from supermarkets any more.
Loads of seeds, plants to grow yourself (I guess that's the diy connection), but no shops *anywhere* selling them.
Thank god we have 9 supermarket chains in the UK, or we'd lack variety.
It can't be a popularity thing - they are one of the most popular to grow.
Probably for the same reason many 'branded' goods are disappearing off the shelves, because all supermarkets are in a race to the bottom, in pursuit of Aldi and Lidl. Not saying they sell poor quality but labels cost. An article just this morning said farmers are getting 15% less !
Andy C
Thing is, there's nothing at all like them. I'm not a massive salad fan - SWMBO is the rabbit, and she agrees having tried everything over the last couple of years. Cherry tomatoes. Vine-ripened. "Sun*blush* (crafty marketing that). Pomodorio. Vine-ripened pomodorio. Vittoria. Vine ripened Vittoria ... all tasteless bland, and crunchy.
Sungold are available as both plain seed and F1 hybrid.
A lot of commercial tomatoes will be FI hybrids as these are selected to produce the most uniform crops, with a lengthier growing season, and may be well worth the extra cost to a commercial grower.
The problem is however, that plants grown from seeds saved from F1 toms won't grow true to type.
"Seeds saved from F1 hybrid plants will not produce plants that are true to the parent type"
Which isn't to say the results might be not more interesting. Just not what you were expecting maybe.
I doubt this is just some myth put about by the seed manufacturers. FI seed is expensive so if gardeners were saving money by saving their own F1 seed rather than forking out each year, they'd be sure to boast about it on the web somewhere.
michael adams
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That does not mean they will be the most popular to grow commercially. Commercial growers look for consistent size and shape, resistance to disease and easy of handling by machinery. Taste comes a long way down their list of desirable characteristics.
Colin Bignell
I also note that many tomatoes are grown abroad now, and yet again, there are many variants of Banana plant which we never see the fruit of. There is a great danger as the world over people are growing what are basically clones of one plant and now a disease is attacking that, it will all end in tears. This sort of crap is everywhere. Its why Philips and Sony tend to badge engineer these days and why good old names like Bush, Goodmans and Wharfedale are now used on crappy chinese goods etc.
Do they think we have not noticed? I am also wondering if we in the uk have started breeding underwater pigs, as nearly all ham I've bought in the last two years is positively saturated when its opened. Brian
Not the first time the free market is shown up as useless then. Not selling what the consumer wants. Selling them what the producer wants.
Hmmmmm
Indeed, there is only the Cavendish as a commercial banana. Utter madness. And some of the other varieties are spectacularly delicious. (Though I have only been lucky enough to try a small selection.)
Same with apples. The most widely grown is Golden Delicious, but I don't know anybody who likes them.
Colin Bignell
The Chinese grow about one quarter of the global output of tomatoes, with India second and the USA third.
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Adding water is the simplest way to get the pack to exactly the weight shown on the outside. If you don't want the water, don't buy it pre-packed.
Colin Bignell
Unless anyone shows me anything better, my favourite is Granny Smiths .... I like *green*, *sharper* and *firm* apples.
I suspect that the varieties we see in AsdaTescoSainsbury etc are what can be most easily grown in the pest-free, hydroponic greenhouses. few varieties will take to that and won't be grown.
Same with bacon. Dry cure is the only way to ensure it isn't pumped up with brine. Or make your own.
Same with all meat I suspect; I'm astounded by the amount of liquid that comes out of a (tasteless) chicken during roasting. If I buy a kilogram of ham, I want a kilo of ham, not 15 or 20% water.
If they were slipping horsemeat past whatever inspections were done, I'm fairly certain that everything else you eat is adulterated where possible.
I grow Sungold & Golden Cherry each year for these mini 'vine' tomatoes .. and Shirley for main crop.
These are max flavour varieties ... but maybe not high enough cropping for commercial growers .... Supermarket push prices so low.
Popular for home gardeners doesn't necessarily make them popular for commercial growers. Some of the more flavoursome tomatoes that if found are the lidl packs with three types of cherry tomatoes, usually 2 red varieties and one yellow.
It depends where they are grown. French granny smith apples often are not much different from golden delicious. South African grown granny smith apples are completely different!
Egremont Russets are usually available in season (and for some months after) around here including Tesco, Asda and (sometimes) Waitrose.
M&S have heritage apples from time to time. I think it was there I bought some Blenheim Orange last year. Price was painful but that's self-inflicted as I never did get around to buying a place with a garden big enough to DIY the apples.
On the contrary, where theres a gap normally someone will try to exploit it commercially, and if successful others follow suit. The issues with produc e are mainly cost, due to harvest yield and plant robustness, and ability t o survive transport/storage. A lot of plant varieties are not good at those , resulting in very steep prices relative to the tough high yielders we see on the shelves. And the reality is few people are willing to pay top dolla r for top quality. For that there are delicatessens - but the local one is a disappointment in the quality department.
They're ok if ripe, but nothing to get excited about. Few goldens in superm arkets are anywhere near ripe. As their name suggests, they're a yellow app le, not green. I buy them sometimes when I want them to store well, and the y're a relatively safe bet when other offerings are of poor quality. Britis h ones are rather better than French in flavour, we seem to have the ultima te apple climate.
NT
We've had apple trees in most gardens and relatives gardens. They always taste the same - almost like some generic breed of any-old-apple tree ! They are slightly sharp, usually quite powdery texture, and of course mostly taste slightly of maggots. As a kid my data used to always be spraying the apple trees to get rid of wooly aphids, which we all pronounced "wooly ay-fuss" ! Simon.
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I'd like to know what happened to all the Kentish 'Coxs Orange Pippin', so plentiful when I were a lad. And completely delicious.
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