WHAT’S FRESH: BUYING OPPORTUNITIES : Tomato Time : The sweet, vine-ripened fruit bear little resemblance to their mass-produced cousins.

Consumers are getting so used to bland, tasteless tomatoes that a sweet, ripe one might surprise them. But just one bite of the real, vine-ripened thing and you would be reminded that this in fact is a fruit and not a vegetable.

Bill Queen, owner of Queen Ranch in Somis, uses one of his 200 acres exclusively to grow the tomatoes that he sells at his produce stand.

“I grow cherry tomatoes and the garden variety ‘slicers’ that people use in their sandwiches,” he said.

At one time tomatoes were grown on a much larger scale in Ventura County, Queen said.

“Farmers have been backing away from them recently. There’s so much competition--mainly from Mexico. Due to cheaper labor costs they are able to sell well below our market price.”

Mostly, he said, local farmers grow for the processors--Hunt’s Foods being one of the biggest--instead of the fresh market. “The tomatoes are used for juice, catsup, canning, sauces and things like that,” Queen said.

The tomatoes have been genetically altered to best suit the mass production of this fruit, one of the most widely grown crops in the U.S.

With the advent of mechanical harvesting, a firmer variety resistant to cracking was needed to withstand the punishments of harvest.

“The machines actually pick up the whole plant and shake the fruit off. The tomatoes drop up to six feet, so you can see the need for a tougher-skinned tomato,” Queen said.

But you won’t find a machine-picked variety at Queen Ranch.

“We hand pick everything. We always pick them when they are ready to eat. Any time the fruit is picked green you lose some of the taste.

“It’s one of the reason farmers markets and stands are so popular,” Queen said. “It’s the only place to buy fresh, ripened fruits and vegetables.”

And what does Queen look for in a tomato?

“One that’s as red as you can get it. And soft, almost like it’s ready to rot. It should bleed all over you. Just shake a tiny bit of salt on it and here’s a tip--some dill weed too. I like to top them with a little sour cream or cottage cheese,” Queen said.

The tomato season kicks into high gear during August in Ventura County and the numerous roadside stands are the best bet for juicy, vine-ripened varieties.

The Queen Ranch roadside produce stand is located at 3400 Los Angeles Ave., Somis.

Peach grower Dorothy Holmes features Alberta peaches at her roadside stand this time of year. “They are the most wonderful tasting variety; they have the real, true taste of a peach,” Holmes said. “You don’t see them in the store much anymore. They are kind of fragile and so growers have developed more hearty varieties.” Holmes’ stand is located at 16350 Maricopa Highway in Ojai.

According to Tony Glaser of Spring Valley Farm, plums are at their sweetest right now. “The plums we’re featuring are the Santa Rosa variety. They are a deep purple, sweet eating plum which will be around for about another month,” she said. The Spring Valley Farm produce stand is located at 4303 Sand Canyon Road in Somis.