Juicy Jersey tomato is ripe for a revival

From the 1980s on, as more tomatoes were imported from California, Rabin says, "our standard around here for what was considered a good-tasting tomato changed - it became the California/Asian style, which is sweet but very bland to us on the East Coast."

Rabin and his team have high hopes that they can help commercial farmers grow flavorful tomatoes that can make it to the supermarket and satisfy customers' tastes for flavor and price.

Victory is not a given - nor it is imminent. When the tastings are all said and done, the transit test remains. And this is where skeptics predict failure.

Ivan Seabrook, of the vegetable processing business Seabrook Brothers in Cumberland County, says the Rutgers goal is "a great idea, but . . . whenever we try to achieve efficiency and satisfy customer demand, we get something like Wal-Mart.

"You get what you pay for," Seabrook says. "And ultimately consumers may have to be willing to pay more for a ripe tomato."

Mike Orzolek, professor of vegetable crops at Pennsylvania State University, is another doubter.

"Those tomatoes are not going to ship well," says Orzolek. "You can't do this in a wholesale market."

Orzolek, who's had 33 years of experience trying the impossible, says there is one solution: a return to the roadside farm stand.

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