06/17/2026
🍅 Produce Spotlight: Tomatoes 🍅
Is there anything that says summer in Tennessee quite like a fresh tomato?
Whether it’s a tomato sandwich with a little salt and pepper, a BLT, fresh salsa, or a slice straight from the garden, tomatoes have become one of the most anticipated crops of the summer season.
But have you ever wondered why a tomato from a garden, produce stand, or farmers market often tastes so different from one you buy in the middle of winter?
The answer comes down to time, transportation, and even the soil it was grown in.
Large grocery chains often need tomatoes that can travel hundreds or even thousands of miles before reaching store shelves. To survive that journey, tomatoes are frequently harvested before they are fully ripe. Later, they are exposed to ethylene gas, a naturally occurring plant hormone, which encourages them to finish ripening before they reach consumers.
This process helps make tomatoes available year-round, but tomatoes that spend more time ripening naturally on the vine often have more opportunity to develop the sugars, acids, and flavor compounds that give them their rich taste. That’s why some store-bought tomatoes can sometimes seem a little bland compared to a fresh summer tomato.
But ripeness isn’t the only factor.
Have you ever moved away from your hometown and spent years trying to find a tomato that tasted like the ones you grew up with?
The difference might not be the tomato at all.
Soil plays a huge role in flavor. The mineral content, organic matter, drainage, and even the pH of the soil can influence how a crop grows and tastes. That’s one reason tomatoes grown in different regions can have noticeably different flavors, even when they’re the exact same variety.
That’s one reason tomatoes hold such a special place in so many families. Unlike peaches or apples, many of us have grown tomatoes ourselves. Whether it was a few plants in a backyard garden or a row planted by a grandparent, tomatoes are often one of the first crops that connect people to growing their own food.
One of the things we love most about tomatoes is the incredible variety available.
🍅 Red Tomatoes
The classic summer favorite. Perfect for sandwiches, burgers, and slicing.
🌈 Heirloom Tomatoes
Heirloom tomatoes are open-pollinated varieties that have been passed down through generations of gardeners and farmers. Unlike many hybrid varieties, heirloom tomatoes can be grown, have their seeds saved, and be replanted year after year while maintaining the characteristics that make them unique. They’re known for their incredible diversity of colors, shapes, sizes, and flavors, with some varieties having histories that stretch back more than a century.
💛 Yellow Tomatoes
Bright, beautiful, and often slightly sweeter and less acidic than traditional red tomatoes. Their mild flavor makes them a favorite for fresh eating, salads, and colorful summer dishes.
🍅 Cherry & Grape Tomatoes
Small, sweet, and packed with flavor. Perfect for snacking, salads, pasta dishes, and lunch boxes. While cherry tomatoes are often round and juicy, grape tomatoes tend to be slightly smaller, firmer, and a bit meatier.
🍅 Green Tomatoes
A Southern classic that can be fried, pickled, or used in relishes and preserves.
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❓ Tomato FAQ
Should tomatoes be refrigerated?
For the best flavor, we don’t recommend refrigerating tomatoes. Cold temperatures can dull the flavor and affect the texture, making tomatoes less juicy and flavorful.
Instead, store tomatoes at room temperature and enjoy them within a few days of ripening. If a tomato becomes extremely ripe and you’re worried it may spoil, refrigeration can help extend its life for a short period, but for the best eating experience, room temperature is the way to go.
Are tomatoes fruits or vegetables?
Believe it or not, tomatoes are technically fruits! They develop from the flower of the plant and contain seeds, which makes them a fruit by botanical definition.
Why are some tomatoes yellow, orange, purple, or even striped?
Different tomato varieties naturally produce different pigments. These pigments can influence color, flavor, and even nutritional content, which is why tomatoes come in such an incredible range of colors.
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❤️ Around here, tomatoes are more than just produce.
They’re backyard gardens. They’re family recipes. They’re BLTs after church. They’re tomato sandwiches on the porch, canning jars lined up on the kitchen counter, and one of my personal favorites: a fresh slice of tomato topped with white breakfast gravy on a summer morning.
For many Tennesseans, summer doesn’t officially begin until the first good tomato of the season.
👇 We have to ask…
What’s your favorite way to enjoy a fresh tomato?
🍅 Tomato Sandwich
🥓 BLT
🥗 Fresh in a Salad
🍅 Straight from the Garden
❤️ Something Else
