Vivipary is very annoying

tomato-vivipary-400x300

The word “vivipary” is new to me. The phenomenon is not. And it is highly annoying.

Especially now with the inflation, tomatoes are expensive. We don’t need this sort of PITA along with everything else. Apparently this also can occur with peppers and corn. I have no such experiences with those; only with tomatoes, at least so far.

Freshness is clearly key. I need to be a LOT more careful at the grocery store.

Vivipary explained

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I have noticed several recent issues with some of my groceries that hadn’t occurred in the past. Blueberries for example have more often an orange fungus rotting them

Something I’d basically never encountered before (although the berries would get moldy if left too long with some other fungus, the 1st in that article I think).

And then there was the recent prepared (not bagged) salad where the lettuce was so fresh it was judged to be tasty by an inch long live slug I found on top of it when I served myself. I sure don’t want to end up like this guy

https://www.cnn.com/2018/11/05/health/man-dies-after-eating-slug-on-dare/index.html

Which means looking a lot more carefully at everything I eat I guess.

Perhaps just anecdotal, but i wonder if some of the food safety measures we took for granted may be failing with delays in the supply chains.

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Agreed. Or it might be understaffing and/or poor or inadequate training of new staff.

This is a valuable observation, at least for me. Thanks

I eat a healthy serving of blueberries every day. But I have questioned my judgement in purchasing nothing but frozen berries. They are uniform and excellent, of course, though not always the least expensive choice. The fresh blueberries can, at times, appear to be an attractive alternative.

However now, after due consideration of all aspects, I will stick with my frozen blueberries which I buy by the case, 18# of berries in each case.

Oh come on, they’re just sending you a message that you need to grow your own, even giving you a head start!

And while I’m guessing you are pretty picky about your tomatos, I’ve found that the standard Roma tomato in our local grocery remains the same 88-cent/lb they’ve been for years. And they dress up a taco or burger as good as any other tomato.

I did when I was younger. Here where I live growing success is weather dependent; some years you get the sun and heat you need for tomatoes, other years you do not. This year would have been a wonderful tomato growing year, at least so far. You cannot beat home grown tomatoes.

I have done that recently, during the first year of the pandemic. The tomatoes really best suited for sauce can, indeed, be eaten instead as a substitute for slicing tomatoes. Personally I prefer the real thing, especially if they are home grown. But I think the Roma tomatoes might be less inclined to vivipary.

I suspect that if you’re willing to refrigerate your store-bought tomatoes, vivipary might not be as much of an issue. That is, unless you refrigerate them already.

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Well. let’s be honest. The food safety measures that we take for granted are a lot stricter here than in a lot of our southern neighbors. Although somewhat onerous on grocers, I sure wish they had to identify the source of fresh vegetables that they’re selling.

I believe Whole Foods does this right on each price sign.

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And if I ate vegetables/fruits, that might lead me to shop there. :smile: