04-16-2012, 12:08 PM
Having retired from repairing transport refrigeration equipment after @ 32 years in the business, I worked around most food processing operations. The reason that tomatoes from your local grocery never taste like "home grown" is because a tomato is always picked green for shipping. They pick them green and load them green, then the load is "gassed" with a gas to turn them red, so that they are red when the arrive at the store or grocery warehouse. They look nice and red on the shelf when you buy them, but the gas only turns them red it doesn't really ripen them or add anything to the flavor. If you pick your tomatoes green and leave them on a window sill to ripen, they will taste like "store bought"; but if you let them turn red on the vine and then pick them, you get the "fresh picked" flavor.