There’s something truly special about the taste of homegrown vegetables, a flavour that simply can’t be replicated by store bought produce. Recently, a friend heading off on holiday gave me some cherry tomatoes they couldn’t use and were about to discard. For fun, I decided to do a taste test between my homegrown cherry tomatoes and store bought ones.

I’m growing the trusted Gardener’s Delight variety this year. Gardener’s Delight is a cordon variety that produces sweet red cherry tomatoes and is known for its high yields.

How do they compare?

Before biting into the first cherry tomato, the first noticeable difference was the smell. My homegrown tomatoes filled the air with a rich tomato scent, while the shop-bought ones had no smell at all. Visually, the shop-bought tomatoes appeared more appealing, with a deeper red colour than my homegrown toms.

Now for the taste test. Biting into my homegrown tomatoes, they taste exactly like a tomato should: vibrant, with a sun-ripened sweetness that bursts with a fresh, garden flavour. The store bought tomatoes, on the other hand, were sweet but lacked the depth of flavour and richness that only comes from being freshly picked off the vine. They were also on the watery side.

Why does homegrown taste better?

The varieties of tomatoes you get at the shop are chosen with different priorities in mind. These tomatoes are selected primarily because they can be mechanically harvested, withstand the rigours of long-distance shipping, and ripen more slowly to ensure a longer shelf life. Unfortunately, many growers often prioritize other factors over taste. As a result, these tomatoes often look perfectly uniform and are easy to transport, but they lack the rich flavour that homegrown varieties offer. This is why, despite their convenience, shop-bought tomatoes frequently fail to match the flavour of homegrown tomatoes.

Have you noticed a difference in flavour between homegrown and store bought tomatoes? I’d love to hear your experiences!