Re: store bought veggies

Janet wrote:-
>Why do store bought veggies taste so bad compared to home grown ones? Is it
>that they are not fresh, and how they are stored or treated,  or different
>varieties grown?   If it is length of storage that so diminishes flavor,  how
>long does it take for some crops to make it to the store for us to buy from
>the time they are picked?  
>The veggies I grow are so superior in flavor I find the difference amazing.

Vegetables often travel hundreds of miles to reach stores often via
warehouses and packing stations. They suffer temperature changes, handling,
being wrapped in plastic.
How would you feel after that?
I think I would feel a little under the weather.

Certain crops are picked half ripe in order that they travel and store.
Tomatoes for example.
Commercial tomatoes are picked under-ripe and allowed to ripen in transit.
This is because a ripe tomato will not travel well or stay saleable for
long on the store shelf.
Anyone who has grown their own tomatoes knows from experience that the best
flavour is produced by ripening on the plant. Tomatoes picked hard and
under-ripe never develop full flavour because they need the sugars produced
by the plant itself.
Many vegetables, e.g sweet corn & peas, contain sugars which once picked
are used up by the plant cells. As the vegetable is no longer in contact
with the source of food (the soil) the sugars are not replaced and the
flavour is impaired.
Both sweetcorn and peas are good examples of where the frozen is actually
more tasty than the so called "fresh" product in the store. Though better
still is your own.

Regards
Stephen

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Stephen Griffiths
Fernwood Crescent
London, N20 0RN.
UK
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e-mail:-stephen.griffiths@dial.pipex.com
URL:- http://dspace.dial.pipex.com/stephen.griffiths
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