Supermarket tomatoes carry a trait that makes them ripen evenly, all over, so they can be picked hard and shipped without blotches. In 2012 researchers found the same gene was running the part of the fruit that makes sugar. Prettier, and emptier. Heirloom varieties were kept by families saving seed from the plant they liked eating — a different thing entirely to optimise for.

Commercial produce is picked before it's finished, then chilled, and both of those cost flavour. A tomato off a plant in your kitchen window comes off when it's actually done. This is the part no shop can sell you at any price — not the organic aisle, not the farmers market. It isn't about money. It's about distance.

Something changes when a child pulls it out of the soil himself. Parents notice it at a grandparent's tomato plant or on a school trip and never think of it again. A trial across sixteen schools and three thousand children found the ones who grew vegetables ate more of them. No hiding, no bargaining, no second dinner at seven o'clock.