I tend to avoid tomatoes at all cost in the winter months. After growing and enjoying fantastic summer tomatoes from the garden, the bland, lighter colored grocery store tomatoes are barely edible. Same goes for most restaurant tomatoes this time of year.
I have found one exception. When Ineed a fix in the cold months, Trader Joe’s Kumato brown tomatoes are quite good. Not quite summer tomato good, but good, and enjoyable. Anyone else try these?
Yes indeed.
It’s funny to me, since my wife buys them fairly often, as she really likes tomato in her salad. For me, if a tomato’s not good, I don’t need one in my salad or sandwich. I can’t really figure out if they are better than not having a tomato or not. They really don’t do much for me.
My wife thinks they are not bad. I’m not sure.
backyard farms out of maine offers very good quality greenhouse tomatoes. they are available at whole foods.
Kumatos are about the only tomatoes I’ll buy in the off season. Maybe some grape or cherry tomatoes
They must be hit or miss. As a grower, I too am picky and I’ve tried these a couple times and been very disappointed. Generally stick to the cherry tomatoes this time of year but I’ll give these another go. Otherwise, I still have some jarred summer salsa to pop!
I agree that the Kumato’s are some of the best winter tomatoes out there and I also like those orange colored cherry tomatoes, but when I can find them, there’s a brand called UglyRipe tomatoes that I generally find are the best winter tomatoes and more and more I’m finding hot house grown heirloom tomatoes available throughout the winter. When I find those, the purple Cherokee and Aunt Ruby’s green the best out of those selections, imo. All that said, while winter tomatoes pale in comparison to the fresh ones of summer, they’ve come a long way from the baseball hard green and pink ones that came 3 to a cello pack back in the day.
Hmm, there is a Whole Foods right by my Trader Joe’s, I’ll see if it carries them.
Cool, I am very familiar with that hybrid of tomato. It was developed and grown in the greenhouses of Almeria, Spain. Spaniards are very serious about their tomatoes. Almeria is the small port city close by my farm.
"Characteristics of inbred tomato line TZ367
Tomato plants were grown in plastic greenhouses in Almeria, Spain under standard conditions. US7612261B2 - Tomato plants - Google Patents "
I like the campari tomatoes from Israel
^ Wow, those look almost too perfect! I’ll be on the lookout.
This is my experience with them, too. Maybe we are on the same distribution network that is different from other parts of the country. The only decent tomatoes right now are the grape ones.
Like Suzanne, I’ve been buying the campari tomatoes, and sometimes the cherub cherry tomatoes. There is another brand of kumato I’ve had that are good, but I avoid TJ produce (and I am otherwise a fan of a lot of their store brand products). At least in my local stores, their produce seems to be less than fresh and relatively poor quality.
Agreed. I think they are better than the Kumatos, but still not as good as the real thing in the summer.
