God-awful Tomatoes!

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harryc
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God-awful Tomatoes!

Post by harryc » Sat Aug 12, 2017 7:22 pm

This is ridiculous - we are in the middle of SUMMER - and ALL full-size tomatoes taste like they are made from ground-up cardboard! And that - more than anything - sold with HUGE Finnish flags on the boxes! (And the Pihvi ones with terrible prices are about the worst)

The only palatable tomatoes are the tiny ones from Spain - with different 'sale names' (cherry, grape, etc.) - and not even all of them - and 'they' try to even rip you off at 10 or more euros a kilo!

Nevertheless Finns are loading up with this crap like there was no tomorrow.

What in H.. is going on??!!



God-awful Tomatoes!

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Flossy1978
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Joined: Tue Oct 09, 2007 3:38 pm

Re: God-awful Tomatoes!

Post by Flossy1978 » Mon Aug 14, 2017 6:49 am

Even here in Australia tomatoes are tasteless crap. They're just designed to look "good" and uniformed. To grow quickly too. Stupid genetic modification. And what is worse, they are horrendously priced here. We can't even get beef tomatoes here anymore. The same with our potatoes. The lovely huge ones are gone. We just have the same small !"#¤% ones. It is all about money.

harryc
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Location: Espoo-Helsinki

Re: God-awful Tomatoes!

Post by harryc » Mon Aug 14, 2017 11:46 am

The really crazy thing in Finland is that the WORST tomatoes here are the ones sold in boxes with big Finnish flags.

But the craziest thing is how Finns run to buy anything Finnish/Kotimainen like a bunch of lemmings running off the Norwegian cliffs. They are in heavy competition for the Donald Drumpf Idiot Award!

(I have not noticed anything special about the Beefsteak/Pihvi tomatoes - they can really be horrible -the only consolation for the high price is their size - which IMO is a debatable 'feature' anyhow)

Has anyone found any of these halli/tori 'stalls' (PK) that has actually found TASTY tomatoes? (am sure there's no chance at Lidl-K-S)

Rosamunda
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Re: God-awful Tomatoes!

Post by Rosamunda » Mon Aug 14, 2017 7:15 pm

Generally speaking I avoid replying to your rants (better things to do) but it just so happens I was in Prisma in Olari yesterday and can concur - a dearth of decent tomatoes. Luckily I have 10-15 kilos growing in the polytunnel and they taste pretty good. If you fancy a trip to Salo market, there is a farmer there who sells ONLY tomatoes. And they are really good.

I have no idea why the supermarkets have such a bad selection at the moment. It is strange. I had some really nice Narpes tomatoes a few weeks ago from a supermarket but this time of year I have all I need in the garden. The weather was bad (cold) earlier in the season but that shouldn't affect the Finnish produce as it is all grown in controlled environments (lighting, heating). There are shortages in produce from Spain due to bad weather in the spring. That probably has a knock-on effect here (more demand for local produce).

harryc
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Location: Espoo-Helsinki

Re: God-awful Tomatoes!

Post by harryc » Mon Aug 14, 2017 8:28 pm

Generally speaking I avoid replying to you...... (better things to do)
Thanks for your comments - let's really get back to the univeral topic of interest of finding tyres for your Landrover! Or reading your posts where you don't need to be interested in anything because you grow things yourself that are much better and do things yourself that give better results than sourcing from anyone else.

Rosamunda
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Re: God-awful Tomatoes!

Post by Rosamunda » Mon Aug 14, 2017 11:56 pm

harryc wrote:
Generally speaking I avoid replying to you...... (better things to do)
Thanks for your comments - let's really get back to the univeral topic of interest of finding tyres for your Landrover!
Wow! You went back a few months to find that one! If my posts bore you, just ignore. :kiss:

harryc
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Location: Espoo-Helsinki

Re: God-awful Tomatoes!

Post by harryc » Tue Aug 15, 2017 4:32 am

Samat sanat!!

ärräpää
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Re: God-awful Tomatoes!

Post by ärräpää » Tue Aug 15, 2017 12:27 pm

Just grow your own tomatoes man ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Seriously tho, I don't understand why it bothers you that Finns want to buy Finnish products. More Spanish tomatoes for you...

biscayne
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Re: God-awful Tomatoes!

Post by biscayne » Tue Aug 15, 2017 5:31 pm

I just returned from spending the summer in Slovenia, and literally weep at the prices and poor quality of fresh produce in Finland.....

Tomatoes are a special case indeed. The Finnish ones and the imports have no taste whatsoever - so I reckon the stuff exported to Finland is whatever crap they can't give anyone else.

Many Slovenes grow their own veg.., but there is a brand sold during summer called LUST, pronounced "Lushed". They taste like how tomatoes used to, or should. Juicy and meaty with a lovely tang. I've been eating them with fresh mozzarella of goats cheese all summer. I noticed loads of Finns in Ljubljana, so if you go try Lust tomatoes, and if self catering, buy all your food at the market.

Of course berries and mushrooms are wonderful here and can be foraged free, credit where credit is due! But I really miss being able to pull together a truly great salad with all the great leaves, ruccola, rapunzel, endive red and green, all the really meaty and chewy leaves, not bagged crap. And all for a few cents! Saw red endive in prisma, 6e a kilo, nearly died......

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Oombongo
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Re: God-awful Tomatoes!

Post by Oombongo » Tue Aug 15, 2017 7:21 pm

even Ukrainians got better tomatoes, but then most of them outside of big cities tend to grow their own produce. It seems that here we gets the produce which is best suited for animals in other countries, and cartels/importers sell it for high prices.
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harryc
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Re: God-awful Tomatoes!

Post by harryc » Tue Aug 15, 2017 9:22 pm

First - Slovenia great - been there some 2 dozen times.

But what place are you referring to here:

But I really miss being able to pull together a truly great salad with all the great leaves, ruccola, rapunzel, endive red and green, all the really meaty and chewy leaves, not bagged crap. And all for a few cents! Saw red endive in prisma, 6e a kilo, nearly died......

Finnish 'salad' is not only expensive but the 'lettuce' in those small pots are pretty tasteless. Heino has Romaine and Radicchio for 3€ kilo plus/minus - but never saw Prisma Olari with 'endive' - and doubt they can spell it - never mind the 6/kg

I have been turned on to dandelion leaves the last 5-6 years so only hit the 'salad shelves' in winter - plus the occasional radicchio at Heino.

++

btw - Heino used to have real 'curly endive, frisee, chicory' - but seems to have disappeared. Replaced by a pretty tasteless 'sweet frisee' - sold by Järvenkylä too - certainly not the tasty 'old frisee' - anyone seen the 'genuine?' (bit bitter, good texture)

biscayne
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Re: God-awful Tomatoes!

Post by biscayne » Wed Aug 16, 2017 10:12 am

I was referring to the expensive bagged salad of so-called mixed leaves in most Finnish supermarkets. Tasteless, soft mush. Nothing like real ruccola, rapunzel, rocket, romaine of the heavy, bitter endives which you get at any farmers market. You can buy by " the fistfull" so you can get a big bag of mixed leaves if you want, cheaply.

As for dandelion leaves - national obsessions. Eaten out of a big bowl with chopped eggs, potatoes and a sort of bacon bits thing. Dress with pumpkin seed oil and apple cider vinegar. Yum!!!!!

biscayne
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Re: God-awful Tomatoes!

Post by biscayne » Wed Aug 16, 2017 10:18 am

Oh sorry - think I misunderstood - saw endive in Prisma (chicory is what it is, also saw red radicchio(??) It's call radic in Slovenia and can be green or red - there are so many varieties of leaves there, I don't actually know all the English names as I first saw those leaves in Slovenia, even in markets in Italy I have not seen so many types. But yes, it was 6 euro a kg.

harryc
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Re: God-awful Tomatoes!

Post by harryc » Wed Aug 16, 2017 12:33 pm

As for dandelion leaves - national obsessions. Eaten out of a big bowl with chopped eggs, potatoes and a sort of bacon bits thing. Dress with pumpkin seed oil and apple cider vinegar. Yum!!!!!
Am sure that's good - but I never go beyond often adding some Feta chopped small* - with sometimes added dried (myself) Parmesan (Heino's been having an Italian 'P-type' for 12€ kilo!). One magic ingredient for many - is a BIT of sugar - otherwise just coat with VOO - and then salt, ground pepper). I turned a 30x80m lawn into a dandelion 'garden' - and get huge bowls every day for 6-7 months. The 'bitterness' actually becomes an 'acquired - favorable - taste.

* Those Lidl 'big cans' are good and cheap on offer. The trick is to keep them cold for a year and the cheese ages nicely and gives a real taste

harryc
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Re: God-awful Tomatoes!

Post by harryc » Wed Aug 16, 2017 12:44 pm

Here's what I meant by 'CURLY endive' - sometimes called chicory or frisee. It's completely different looking and tasting than the 'Belgian/cigar endive' in usual shops - MUCH less bitter - VERY different texture and taste

http://www.specialtyproduce.com/produce ... e_7642.php

http://www.gourmetsleuth.com/ingredient ... rly-endive

The only place I had found it was Heino - but it seemingly has been replaced by some Finnish 'sweet frisee' where the only thing in common is they are both green. The sweet frisee can be completely ignored IMO.


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