Tomatoes are great when picked ripe. They also spoil in like four seconds. So you pick them unripe, ship them, and ripen them with gas. At some point during this process you usually drop them below 45 degrees, turning off a magical compound that gives tomatoes most of their flavor. And once it is off, it is off forever. Also modern tomatoes are bred for size and durability. The extra size is mostly water weight, which deadens the flavor even more.Six kinds of tomatoes coming out of our garden right now. It's remarkable how different they are than the store bought ones. Our local supermarkets do a pretty good job of getting seasonal and local produce, but the tomatoes are never great. The quality of home grown food is just outstanding. It does make winter harder, though...
Yeah, it's like people who try to sous vide shit in their house.Don't ever listen to the extreme of any group - food "purists" are douche canoes who are trying to look self important and knowledgeable. However, you'll find virtually none of them know anything about corn pollination needs and so forth. Just a lot of hot air escaping from them.