Lipman gives away tomatoes

08/15/2012 10:30:00 AM
Doug Ohlemeier

In an effort to dispel recent critiques in the media about the flavor of tomatoes, Immokalee, Fla.-based grower shipper Lipman is giving tomatoes away.

The grower-shipper plans to give free samples of its Vintage Ripe heirloom tomatoes through its website, www.TrueTomatoTaste.com, and it’s donating tomatoes to local schools.

The company, which says it’s North America’s largest field-grown tomato grower, launched the giveaway to offer consumers “true tomato taste,” according to a news release.

Media reports in the last year have questioned the flavor of commercially grown tomatoes, after a book on the subject, “Tomatoland: How Modern Industrial Agriculture Destroyed Our Most Alluring Fruit,” by Barry Estabrook, was published in June 2011.

“In recent months, there’s been a lot of talk about how today’s tomatoes are ‘flavorless,’” Kent Shoemaker, Lipman’s chief executive officer, said in the release. “It’s time to set the record straight, which is why we’re giving away samples of our most flavorful tomato, the Vintage Ripe. Specially grown for that authentic tomato taste, we’re confident this variety will deliver the flavor consumers long for.”

Through Sept. 14, Lipman is encouraging consumers to register to win free two-pack samples.

Earlier in the year, Lipman started LipmanKitchen.com, a consumer-focused website.

The site features tomato facts, nutrition information and recipes from food bloggers created for Lipman.

Lipman also distributed 700 backpacks to Immokalee children during the Collier County Sheriff Office’s “National Night Out” event and the company collected school supplies through the April Homerun Harvest softball tournament.

Other grower-shippers contributing to the effort included Homestead, Fla.-based DiMare Co., Palmetto, Fla.-based Pacific Tomato Growers Ltd., and Taylor & Fulton Packing LLC.

Comments (19) Leave a comment 

Shame on you Six Ls, get it thru your heads that nothing beats a Merxican grown tomato.

What is the percentage of the giving away samples of our most flavorful tomato, the Vintage Ripe compared to the total amount of raised tomatoes?

Best tomatoes ever: TastyLees, developed by reseachers at the University of Florida (30% more lycopene thand the regular round tomatoes, exceptional taste) and grown by a handfull of FL growers and Procacci Bros' Ugly tomatoes, the nest flavor of all

The Vintage Ripe is a breed close to Ugly Ripes, same breeding program

Good start, however that variety is not mainstream. Perhaps with enough demand retailers will stock it vs the low flavor high margin rounds and romas they carry. GH tomato sales data proves that people will pay more for better tasting product if you make it available.

Lycopene content doesnt always equate to better flavor. The brix levels is a better indicator of the flavor sweetness. One of the best tomatoes I have ever tasted (going on 14 years in the tomato business) was a small orange mini plum greenhouse tomato. Which has very little lycopene content and a higher carotene content. Variety has a lot to do with it, but so does the way its grown. Just because its an heirloom, dont automatically assume it has a superior taste. Most heirlooms are prefered for cooking more for their "meatiness" than their actual taste profile.

You took my comment on the TastyLees lycopene percentage out of context. I only mentioned this characteristic as a nutritional plus of this great flavored tomato. You probably meant the same regarding the carotene content of your orange mini plum.

When growing for S&H in the mid 60's, we used the Marglobe variety one that still
renders memories of a great tasting tomato.

Come on Ben, Florida will never admit that this is a publicity stunt not at all based on reality or data... They only care that they get publicity such as this article.

In response to Kents comments in the story, you don't hear people saying that "today's tomatoes" are flavorless. That is a gross misrepresentation of reality. You hear people saying that your typical Florida tomato, aka gassed-green tomatoes, are flavorless. It is impossible to generalize and say that no one in Florida can produce a good tasting tomato. It IS however factually correct that the vast majority of tomatoes (not the ones being given away by Lipman) are cultivated for reasons other than flavor. They are placeholder tomatoes serving to look like a tomato, and that's about it.

Fernando

those were coconuts you were growing in the 60's

As a home gardener, I spent many years looking for a good flavored tomato that is good
to eat and be used in salsa. I would never buy tomatoes in the store for salsa since they
have virtually no flavor at all. When the final freeze takes out my plants in the fall, I
dread the thought of having to buy store bought tomatoes. As an apple grower, there is
a difference in flavor in a tree ripened apple versus what is picked for storage which is
picked a little greener.

Breeding program...me thinks its not an authentic heirloom tomato.
Why do you have to give them away?

I don't think that it is an heirloom either. But the Vintage Ripe is being promoted, and sold as an heirloom and has caused real heirloom farmers a great loss of business in chain stores who sell the Vintage Ripes as heirlooms using heirloom PLU numbers. Chain stores are using them to replace local heirlooms on their shelves. This is mislabeling. If they are true heirlooms, where can we get the seed, they sure didn't prove true to seed on my farm this summer and everyone knows that heirlooms are true to seed.

Heirloom? I don't think so. If so, where are the seed available, they sure aren't true to seed. They are being sold as heirlooms, however: using heirloom PLU numbers, and being promoted as heirlooms. This has caused a disaster for local, true heirloom farmers who lost their business to local chain stores who stopped buying local heirlooms, prefering the cheaper Vintage Ripe ... uh, fake heirlooms. False labeling, misrepretation of product . . . looks like a problem brewing for 6 L's.

I'm with you Esteban.....just the tomato cartel making noise

Conversely, appropriate selected parentage can produce hybrids with heterosis for flavor. It's easy to breed something sweet. The Tasti-Lee tomatoes maybe sweet but they lack the background flavor character that really makes a good tomato. It is not just the sugar/acid balance that makes the difference. And TomatoGuy is correct - how they are grown also makes a difference. If you want to kill flavor grow on plastic/drip.

You mean the Florida 47