Grow your own! Is the best advice I can give, because tomatoes taste the best when picked fresh from the vine. I never liked tomatoes until I grew my own and discovered how amazing they taste when fully ripened on the vine. If you can’t grow your own then try looking at your nearest Farmers’ Market. If you have no choice but the grocery store, then please STOP squeezing the tomatoes, because all you are doing is bruising the fruit. How to tell if the tomato has any flavor… smell it  Sadly, most store bought tomatoes don’t have any flavor because they are picked while still green then gassed to turn red. Why? Because green tomatoes travel better. Tomatoes get their flavor when ripened ON the vine, not to be confused with “vine ripened” which basically a marketing ploy and a fib. Remember don’t squeeze, smell the tomato instead. A tomato that doesn’t smell like a tomato will have NO flavor. 

Watermelons are coming into season and most people are thumping them in an attempt to determine ripeness. There is a much better way to find the perfect watermelon. Look for one with some stem still attached and a nice big pale spot. No stem means it may be over-ripe because it has fallen off the vine.  An under-ripe watermelon will has stem but no pale spot; the pale spot indicates that the watermelon has been left to fully ripen on the vine.