It occurred to me the other day to wonder what “vine-ripened” actually means on a pack of tomatoes, as opposed to what supermarkets want us to think it means.
As far as I can find, it means you get charged more. That’s it. It doesn’t mean they’re picked when they’re ripe and ready to eat. It means they’re picked when they’re starting to colour up (as opposed to being picked fully green) and likely still “ripened” by exposing them to ethylene gas.
I even found a few links to research suggesting that there’s no difference in taste at all.
I guess that means I need a way to save my own tomatoes for as long as possible. To that ends I hope to get a reasonable crop from my “de Colgar” tomatoes this year. They’re supposed to store for several months after picking from what I’ve read.