I caved in today and bought ONE grocery store tomato. (Hope I'm not banned from the forum, lol).
It was nice and red on the outside and I'm craving tomatoes big time so.....
YUCK is all I can say. It was pale pink inside and hard as a rock. No flavor at all.
This year I'm going to grow early, mid and late season tomatoes !

I only buy the one's that are on the stems...
*I can't remember what they called them*
Those are the closest you can get, I think..
They ain't much, but I close my eyes and think
of sunshine...

I know the ones you mean.
This one was without a stem. I wish now I'd paid the few cents more and bought the stemmed one.
They aren't homegrown in flavor but once in awhile they're sure better than nothing, right?

That's what I say,
They're better than nothing...

I can not go with out tomatoes..

I put at least 6 slices on a small cheese sub..
I just had some on a veggie taco today..
and cherry tomatoes w/dip tonight..
and had a whole tomato at lunch yesterday w/mac~n~cheese..
I have to have tomatoes..
Just wouldn't be a day gone right if there wasn't a tomato in it...

There are a couple of decent store bought tomatoes available, campari and santa sweets come quickly to mind.