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-Signs, Portents, and the Weather-
Oh the horror - gene-modified tomatoes taste better
2007-06-27
Shoppers who miss the taste of farm-grown tomatoes may find solace in a new technology that puts back what generations of breeding for hardiness and shelf life have taken out. A new variety of tomato has been genetically modified (GM) to produce geraniol, a rose-smelling compound found in fruits and flowers. In a blind taste test, 60 percent of 37 testers preferred the flavor of the GM tomato, according to a study published online this week in Nature Biotechnology.
Mmmmm....potpourri!
The result proves that genetic modification can potentially restore some of the flavor and aroma lost as breeders have created more durable strains of tomatoes and other crops ...
more at the link
Posted by:lotp

#11  #9 JFM - When they invent a crossbreed that looks like a cucumber but tastes like a tomato, get back to me. ;-p
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut   2007-06-27 20:16  

#10  This smacks of fixing past broken seed stock.

We grow stickily heirlooms. Screw the perfect hybrid's. I could care less if the tomatoes have spots and legs, just as long as they are real and not some poor tasting perfect skinned hollow shells.

Posted by: Icerigger   2007-06-27 14:15  

#9  Cross tomatoes with cucumbers.

It has been already done in Holland. They look like tomatoes but taste like cucumbers.
Posted by: JFM   2007-06-27 12:32  

#8  Surely that's haram, KBK.
Posted by: trailing wife   2007-06-27 12:03  

#7  Cross tomatoes with cucumbers.
Posted by: KBK   2007-06-27 10:55  

#6  The farmer's market is the best way to go for good tasting veggies. Oletha corn.... Best in the world.
Posted by: DarthVader   2007-06-27 10:34  

#5  It's the same with carrots, there are crossbreeds that taste great, but the supermarkets don't handle them. Shop at the farm markets.
Posted by: wxjames   2007-06-27 09:29  

#4  We used to grow heritage varieties, a few plants each year. Baskets of tomatoes. Couldn't possibly transport them more than a few miles to market, but oh were they sweet and delicious!

I have seeds that are viable, just no time this year to have a garden. Next year, tho ...
Posted by: lotp   2007-06-27 08:38  

#3  Heck, when I was stationed in Greece, I had friends who swore up and down they had always hated tomatoes... and then they came to Greece, and got to taste real tomatoes, and then it was a different story.
Posted by: Sgt. Mom   2007-06-27 08:04  

#2  A great many people here grow their own tomatoes, JFM, precisely because the Holland-grown hothouse ones are so dreadful. There's no dearth of Americans who are very clear about what tomatoes are supposed to taste like.
Posted by: trailing wife   2007-06-27 05:01  

#1  Pleaaaaaaaase! The people who tasted the tomatoes were Americans. Given how vegetables in America are comerecialized (supermarket chains buying not to producers or even to local non-retial salers but tio nationwide chains, Americans have no chance at all to know how a tomato tastes.

I will take the study seriously when the sam:ple is formed of Italians or Spaniards. Preferrrently when it is formed of peoplle from small cities in tomazto producing regions.
Posted by: JFM   2007-06-27 04:39  

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