Back in Việt Nam I could pick the ripe ones in the market, but since I moved to South Korea, they are hard as rocks. I often have to buy tomatoes a week or two in advance and wonder about your situation. Some are too green and refuse to ripen even after a month.
Cherry tomatoes are still good, though not suitable for finer sauces that require peeling.
there are a LOT of varieties of tomatoes and each community has different tastes and expectations (as a rough generalization, Koreans turn to cherry tomatoes as the go-to snack when dieting the same way Americans turn to iceberg lettuce or celery)
but to expand on @poVoq’s point – I see the main emphasis on transport show up when a community switches from market shopping to supermarket shopping – when the emphasis switches from seeing what came in that morning versus stocking up for the week ahead, your emphasis on produce switches from cooking the ingredient that night to needing it to survive stuffed into a plastic bag in the back of the fridge for a week …
I see, those are good points.
Not sure what things are like in Korea but here in California you can only get good ripe tomatoes at local farmers markets. And even then it’s only some producers. Good, ripe tomatoes are perishable and difficult to transport so the supermarket model can’t supply them.
So try buying direct from farmers. Or grow your own if you can find some space!
Or grow your own if you can find some space!
Do I need to wait until fall/spring to start?
Depends on your climate. Korea gets cold in winter, right? Tomatoes like warm weather so it may be a bit late at this point to start them but it could be worth a try. You’ll want to buy plants instead of starting with seeds to get a head start on growing.
Definitely don’t plant in fall unless it’s a fully tropical area. They will die from the cold before they grow enough to produce fruit.
If you’re new to gardening, cherry tomatoes are easier than bigger slicer tomatoes. But you could try both of you have space.
Thanks for the advises!
on the “when life gives you lemons” side of things – should be able to find plenty of recipes for fried green tomatoes and green tomato pickles (both out of Southern US)
While that’s true, I buy tomatoes mostly for red sauces, soups and sandwiches. What’s the texture of green tomato pickles?
will depend on your experience with pickling in general, but will most likely will be a little soft – closer to an Italian giardiniera than an American store-bought kosher dill
Thanks, I’ve no idea how those two are, but little soft sounds good enough. I suppose it’s something close to pickled eggplant? I’ll give it a try this weekend.
I think this is mainly an issue of the tomato variety that is bred to withstand transport abuse and still look nice in the supermarket. If you wait for them to become soft, you are basically waiting for them to be half rotten.
Understandable, although I doubt they half rotten (I mean a few do but it’s a price I’m willing to pay) since I often slice them for breakfast’s sandwich. I wait til’ they’re a bit bouncy, otherwise they’re tasteless rubber like @RoadkillUgly@lemmy.world described.
Where I am in Australia they are a weird pink colour and are flavourless, also $10 per kg so I havent had tomato for about a month. I miss a good tomato 🍅
Yea it’s similarly bad and expensive here)-; BTW I’m curios if my other comment got in your inbox.
Not till I clicked the link. I am a RIFugee so still muddling way through the newness caused by the Reddapocalypse.
Where I am in southern Australia the tomatoes are ripe so that you’ve got to eat them within a week of buying. You can usually buy some ready to eat right now, or some that are a couple of days away from ripening, even though it’s not really the season for them here at the moment.
I’m jealous!
