Backyard Beauties: Are they really as good as summer's tomatoes?

The new

Backyard Beauties

, greenhouse-grown in Madison, Maine, are at Hannaford's, and they are gorgeous to look at. Medium-sized tomatoes, good tomato color, nice shape and feel. A bit thick-skinned, a bit dense in the flesh, but not important. What is important is the flavor, and they have a pretty good tomato flavor for a winter tomato. They are not as sweet as I like, but a few more days sitting on the kitchen table should take care of that. They slice extremely well, and appear to keep well. At $2.99 a pound they are cheaper than a lot of other winter tomatoes, though they are not organic. Will I buy 'em again? Definitely. Do I still like a winter Roma, well-ripened on the kitchen table for a few days, in the winter. Yup. And neither is as tasty as an Early Cascade just off the vine in the last week in June, warm and dripping juice. But I have to hand it to the folks at Backyard Beauties for taking a giant step in the right direction.

Why Madison, Maine? Apparently it is cheaper to heat greenhouses in winter than to cool them in summer (I know, hard to believe this week especially, and Madison is a very cold place in winter). And Madison enjoys very low electric rates due to the presence of the New York Times newsprint reprocessing plant there. Though Madison is only about a half hour from I-95, you have to wonder why the growers didn't set up shop in Eastport--zone 6 winters, a lot warmer than Madison, and cool summers. Maybe the nearest airport is too far away, but isn't local what Backyard Beauties is all about? They shouldn't need an airport.

So good for Backyard Beauties. I look forward to the first cuke crop. I hope Whole Foods buys their product, and I look forward to seeing their trucks on the interstate.