This, too, is part of the problem. People expect to be able to buy fresh tomatoes all year long. It doesn't matter if they have zero flavor -- as long as they're available, and cheap.
And that all ties in with my big-picture problem. I'm not suggesting that this cavalier attitude toward food is going to lead us to a slippery slope -- and eventually you can't trust anything on the market shelves.
I'm suggesting we're already down that slope.
Take truffle oil. There is no truffle in it. The "truffle" is a chemical called 2,4-dithiapentane, which smells like old gym socks. But they don't call it "chemically-flavored, old gym socks oil." They call it truffle oil. I can't stand that. I won't buy it. It's ridiculous. And it's the same with so many foods. We're being cheated basically every time we go to a restaurant or buy food at a market. But unlike timeshares, people haven't wised up to the fact that scammers abound.
Since everyone needs to eat, everyone thinks they're an expert.
Yes, that's true that most produce is seasonal or is the best tasting at their peak season. But people will want a fresh tomato and buy it even if not in season so it's not going to taste good.
My dad was a produce trucker for a farm in South Orange County and would always bring home the extras from the farm. He also traded with his friends at the Central Produce Market where all the trucks would bring their farm's produce, so we usually had a variety of the freshest fruits and vegetables. We'd get strawberries, silver queen corn, bell peppers, green beans, green/red leaf lettuce, seedless watermelon and more. I think that farm was one of the first farms to grow/sell the silver queen corn and seedless watermelon in the So Cal area-I recall the produce buyer from Gelson's or some other high end supermarket came down to the farm to personally get the seedless watermelons for his stores when they first started growing them.
Most of the produce was usually the high quality #1 grade. During strawberry season he'd bring home several (even after giving away all the other flats to his friends) flats of strawberries that the farm couldn't sell because they were #2 and too ripe/soft and would probably go bad within a day or two so my mom would make homemade strawberry jam for canning. Then being the spoiled kids, we'd get sick of strawberry jam, seedless watermelon or whatever abundance of produce was in season. My parents even had a small produce garden in the back yard and several fruit trees. Even after giving away the excess abundance to friends and our neighbors, we'd still have a lot! So dad would load our car's trunk and we'd all bring a bunch to our work places and I know my co-workers enjoyed getting the seedless watermelon, strawberries, silver corn and other fresh produce that they said was better than what they could find in their grocery stores.
I can recall that back then in the late 60's, 70's, and early 80's that the strawberries were smaller and not as uniformly shaped and definitely had more scent and taste than the "beautiful" but less scented/less tasty ones that are sold now. I think now it's harder to find nicely scented and tasty berries, as the market prefers beautifully shaped and colored berries.
Actually, the best strawberries we ever ate (besides the ones when we were kids) was at a strawberry farm in Japan. It was an "all you can eat" in 20 (or 30?) minutes strawberry farm greenhouse tour package, where they grow the strawberries in the hydroponic type setting in temp/light controlled greenhouses. You can't bring in any purses or backpacks (they don't want you sneaking any out!), they give you a little plastic tray and pour some sweetened condensed milk (if you want) and you go down the rows and pick and eat all the berries you want in that time period. Those Japanese strawberries were super sweet on their own, although our then grade school kids liked dunking them in the milk! Yes, the J berries were much smaller than what you'd find in the US but super fragrant, super sweet, and perfect texture. Oh, and generally good berry shape, just not huge. If Japan ever opens it's borders up and you are travelling to Japan, try doing one of these strawberry tours!
On a side note, we try to grow pineapples from the crowns and have been somewhat successful. They are not as big but because we let them grow for longer, they get nicely golden and ripe and have a great scent and taste when we pick them. It's just that it takes a long time to just get one to flower and grow into a pineapple, so it's more of a fun hobby!
And I have not tried truffle oil, but based on your post I don't think I want to!