The other day at the grocery I picked up some "Ugly Ripe" tomatoes. I don't buy tomatoes at the grocery, since they tend to be mealy and tasteless -- I wait for summertime farmer's markets, roadside stands, and friends who have surpluses.

However, in the same Mother Earth News issue I'm posting about elsewhere, I'd seen commentary about the "Ugly Ripe".

It's a heirloom tomato that at least one producer started raising for the national (USA) market in 1999. It is supposed to have a high quality flavor, but look -- ugly. Well, they're wrinkly and not symmetrical, and they look a lot like many of the tomatoes friends grow - but that doesn't make them ugly.

The word is, though, that the Florida Tomato Committee doesn't want them sold, because they don't look round. They "defy orderly marketing". According to the magazine, they've stopped allowing the sale of these. Evidently, some got through or changes were made since the magazine went to press, because there they were the other day.

I bought some, and they're not bad. They still aren't great, but that is more due to the shipping distance and the likelihood they weren't picked ripe for the shipping. They're better than the regular supermarket tomato.

The problem with supermarket tomatoes, and other fruits and vegetables, is the percieved need for high yield and easy shipping. Flavor in many of these things took a back seat and has been inadvertently bred out. Shipping distances also mean that it is necessary to pick things before fully ripening.

Anyhow, as a step in the right direction, I hope that distributors start/continue to make heirloom fruits and veggies available.