The Taste Of Grocery Store Vegetables | Great, Good, Blah, or Bad?
Every year when our garden begins to produce, I am struck by how much BETTER vegetables taste compared to the grocery store!!
Sound familiar?
Our Bell pepper plants are beginning to prolifically produce wonderful looking peppers. We picked a few to add to our dinner salad the other day. When I bit into that fresh bell pepper, it was like a sensory overload of DELICIOUS BURSTING FLAVOR!
You might say, OMG. How is it that grocery store vegetables taste so bland compared to this?!
Our tomatoes aren’t quite ready yet. But I can guarantee the same reaction when I first get to bite into one of those yummy, juicy red orbs. I can hardly wait!
I don’t know about you, but this past year at our grocery store, the tomatoes taste so incredibly bland – I can hardly taste that they are actually tomatoes! And the prices! Crazy…
It’s all the more reason to grow your own garden! Treat yourself to real, tasty, vegetables!
We ‘home can’ the excess (tomato sauce). We also dehydrate other veggies.
Why Do Grocery Store Vegetables Taste Bad?
First, it’s not all bad. But I’m pretty sure you know what I mean. Many of the vegetables in grocery stores just don’t taste very delish.
Unless you’re fortunate to have a specialty grocery store near you, one that excels at fresh vegetables, you’re probably disappointed.
I believe the number one reason why so many grocery store vegetables taste bad (or simply “not so good”) is because they are sourced from far away.
Far Away Source | Picked Early | Travel Time
Obviously and especially during “off season”, vegetables come from very far away. They are picked BEFORE they are ripe, before they have had a chance to develop a full flavor. Vegetables are transported long distances to arrive at your grocery store and are just beginning to appear ripe and ready as they hit the shelves.
This results in a “not so good” comparative flavor experience to those which you garden yourself.
Even during “on season”, most major grocery store chains continue their existing supply chain (from far away). Not many chain grocers will include locally grown “in season” veggies on their shelves, given their contractual relations with distributors, etc.
Modified Vegetable Varieties For Grocery Stores
It’s all about the Benjamins. The money. It is well known that the vegetables MUST LOOK GOOD at the grocery store. Shoppers won’t buy vegetables that don’t look so good. So how does the grocer industry deal with this?
It gets back to the growers. They modify / choose vegetable varieties that survive better and longer during the journey to the shelves. Varieties are also chosen which LOOK BETTER when they get there.
They are NOT concerned about taste. They know you don’t have much of a choice in that department… At least that’s how I see it.
WHAT DO YOU THINK?
Why do fresh garden vegetables taste SO MUCH BETTER than from the grocery store?
