NPR
Heard on Morning Edition
By Dan Charles
One of my fondest childhood memories is of eating tomatoes. We picked them in the garden and ate them in sandwiches, sitting on a picnic table under the trees outside our house. That juicy, acidic taste is forever lodged in the pleasure centers of my brain.
For anyone with similar memories, supermarket tomatoes are bound to disappoint. Indeed, the classic supermarket tomato — hard, tasteless, sometimes mealy — has inspired countless bitter complaints.
Take a closer look at the tomato display in your local grocery store, though, and you’ll notice some big changes.
Here’s how. It’s a three-act drama.