Whats Your Opinion

[teacake44]

Back in the 60s /70s when my mum was washing and preparing/cutting salad, especially cucumber and celery you got that lovely smell even if you were in another room, also when you walked through open markets where you had lots of veg stalls. Today there don't seem to be any aroma even if you stick it half way up your nose, as for the taste, well, very little, and very bland. Do you find this or is it just a case of getting a little older and smell and taste tends to desert us?

[Bazile]

Are you wearing one of your surgical grade masks ?

[emmie]

no its the produce that's changed. where once it was fresh seasonal now we get it so mass produced that its taken all the flavour out of them.

[tiggerblue10]

I find both tomatoes and cucumber taste bland. Years ago I grew some mini cucumbers and cherry toms in pots along with mini bell peppers and they tastes lovely.

[Mamyalynne]

I try to buy organic tomatoes on the vine, the smell is delicious - seldom buy celery but usually buy the hearts.

Cucumber has no smell when first out the fridge but let it acclimatise a while and it does.

[teacake44]

Think I may give a couple of pots a go myself, because other than add a bit of color to a dish its a complete wast of money. If one wants a full salad its a total disaster.

[bhg481]

I think vegeatables are grown for size nowadays ie, more money per acre, so taste has gone out of the window.

[ummmm]

I didn't do much cooking in the 60s and 70s so i haven't really noticed.

Our taste buds do change though. I eat loads of stuff that I wouldn't eaten before.

[Togo]

Cucumber for commercial growers has been hybridised to give yields with no taste. It requires special conditions, usually hydroponics, to make viable at 80p a cucumber and is tasteless, water laden, and only last about 2 days once the plastic seal is broken. It is a non product TC44, you are right. I grow a couple of cucumber plants every summer and the taste and texture is as it should be. Don't get us started on Tomatoes, Courgettes, Potatoes, ... Even the Jersey Royals have lost their shape and distinctive flavour. Rhuubarb to the intensive farming methods.

P.S. Wat till Alava shows up. He is an expert.

[Togo]

Haha ... Wat + Wait.

[roopower]

I think a lot of fruit and veg are forced now so don't taste as good. The majority of people don't know about seasonal fruit and veg, when you can get soft 'summer' fruit all year round etc

[pastafreak]

I think that with tomatoes, you need to buy the best you can...and on the vine like mamya says. And never refrigerate them! That kills any taste and texture. Trouble is, supermarkets refrigerate everything.

[Buenchico]

People have been complaining that things don't taste or smell as they did in their youth for hundreds of years. It's got very little (if anything at all) to do with changes in food varieties or production methods and everything to do the simple biological fact that taste buds, which regenerate every week or two in young people, don't regenerate as quickly in older people. i.e. it's simply a sign of old age.

https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2017/05/05/526750174/why-taste-buds-dull-as-we-age?t=1620580054911

[teacake44]

BC @ 18.10 can't really argue with your link, but it does appear from other posts that mass production/ forced growing also plays a big part in bland tasting fruit / veg/ salad products.

[Apc2604]

My grandparents were greengrocers and lived behind and above the shop. I spent a lot of time there. Definitely things taste different now and that's not just having a rosy glow about childhood. Far less variety of fruit and veg back then, but much better quality and taste.

Fortunately now OH grows a lot of salad crops. So we are lucky. Shop bought tomatoes just don't compare to what they used to be like.

[zylaphone]

Nothing like home grown cucumber or tomato in a pot

[weecalf]

Same with meat .when I was young you cudda smelt the frying pan 3 fields away not not you could not even smell it in the kitchen .May they have cleaned it or summit .

[tiggerblue10]

I stopped growing the veg I listed above as I had a problem with greenfly.

[Patsy33]

I agree. Not the same. The tomatoes on the vine have a gorgeous smell. Reminds me of my childhood, when they were grown in our garden.

[237SJ]

The tomatoes on the vine have a lovely smell but it's the vine that smells lovely, not the tomatoes.

[ummmm]

Meat wise - The only meat I can really taste the difference to from them and now is chicken. When I bought my first organic chicken it was like being transported back to childhood. They are quite expensive though. I think the chicken was £8 and it would have just fed two of the four adults. We also had 3 kids to feed.