I spent six years selling at farmers' markets in California before I
came to Minnesota. Californians actively sought new and different
vegetables and I didn't think Minnesotans would be any different. They are!
If the produce doesn't look like something that might be selling at a
grocery store, they won't buy it! Not only will they not buy it, they won't
even taste it! Purple tomatoes? I might plant some in my garden but I
won't bother bringing any to market.
Anecdote: Second only to sweet corn, home grown tomatoes are a much
sought-after fruit at farmers' markets. Customers do have their priorities
though: Demand No. 1) They have to be BIG. No. 2) They have to be
pretty. No.3) They have to be locally grown. In the twenty years I've
been selling at farmers' markets, I've only ever once been asked, "Which one
tastes the best?" As amazing number of market customers don't have a clue
that home grown tomatoes might taste different from the 'cardboard' tasting
tomatoes at the grocery store.
Anecdote: Home grown tomatoes have the best flavor when slightly soft
but most customers won't buy them unless they are hard, like grocery store
tomatoes. Alot of folks think that produce dealers gas their (grocery
store) tomatoes to ripen them. Actually, the (ethylene) gas just causes
tomatoes to change color from green to red. They are really red, green
tomatoes.
Anecdote: I once had a customer ask to see my back-stock of tomatoes
because she said she needed really big tomatoes. So I asked her, "Why do
you need big tomatoes?" Her reply, "I'm going to cut them up for a salad."
Oregon State developed the purple tomato to promote health, but it's the
colour that will draw the most fame, said Rose Marie Nichols McGee, the
owner of Nichols Garden Nursery in Albany.
Gardeners and consumers seek out unusual produce colours such as orange
cauliflower and purple carrots, she said.
"I think we respond to something that looks a little bit different," she
said. "It just catches our curiosity."