No matter how you say tomato, we wanted to know how much yours cost.
After our roughly two-week online poll, Kansas Citians have revealed some of the cheapest and most expensive red spheres in the metropolitan area.
(See an interactive map below with all the juicy details.)
Results came in from across the metro. Among the cheapest tomatoes were heirlooms in Missouri at an Independence farmer’s market, at 73 cents apiece.
But several submissions for tomatoes at the Brookside Price Chopper also proved to be some of the cheapest, at $1.99 a pound for regular tomatoes and 99 cents a pound for plum tomatoes.
Higher-end tomato prices emerged from submissions for Anton’s Taproom in Kansas City, Mo., where fresh tomatoes are served for $5 each.
And someone said they paid $7 for a single heirloom tomato at McGonigle’s Market/Cobinsteinz Gourmet Produce in Kansas City. A McGonigle’s clerk said the tomatoes go for $5.99 a pound, so if someone bought an enormous tomato, it’s possible it rang up at $7.
A fair number of the responses came from home tomato growers who said they paid little to nothing for their tomatoes, but they had plenty of stories to share.
A submission from Brookside warned, “If you don't want to be disappointed, grow enough tomatoes to take care of the neighborhood squirrel population's needs and wants.”
Most people talked about the many benefits of growing your own, such as, “Eating canned tomato sauce with homemade noodles in the winter time.”
And a person from Linwood, Kan., who usually sells tomatoes at a farmer’s market in Shawnee, Kan., explained the challenges facing home growers this year.
“The amount of tomatoes is really down. Everything is like a month behind,” the Linwood resident wrote. “The temperature at night is critical and it’s been too cool at night that really slows them down. Now it’s too dry and that means more work and more insect damage. People want perfect tomatoes and any blemish they just turn their heads. So this year I am too tired and fed up and keeping the few for myself.”
To see how much tomatoes cost in your neck of the woods, check out our interactive map, compiled by KCUR’s Jeremy Bernfeld and Briana O’Higgins. Click through the map to see the prices.
Want to submit the prices of your tomatoes? Fill out this form.
Tell KCUR is part of an initiative to engage the community and shine a light on your experiences and opinions. We’ll ask a new question every week and then share your feedback on the air and online. Be a source for KCUR and let us know more about your expertise.
