And many of the Florida tomatoes that are available are survivors of the storms, so quality is uneven.

Many of those lawmakers nevertheless walked away when Florida's tomato and sweet-pepper lawmakers argued that they deserved a similar deal.

She admits, though, that Florida tomatoes, although juicy and tasty, are not as good as New Jersey tomatoes.

Aside from the Florida tomatoes, he uses mostly local produce.

Florida tomatoes may have suffered from the freeze, too, state agriculture officials said.

Not hard, anemic, cottony-textured tomatoes, but ripe, juicy, flavorful Florida tomatoes.

"Florida tomatoes have a terrible reputation, but it does not have to be that way," she said.

"Unfortunately, I don't have complete control over what happens to the average Florida tomato before it gets to the store."

I tried it with Florida tomatoes that Ms. Mahaffey promised had never been refrigerated.

The pale Florida tomato that adorned every plate was an embarrassment, like serving ballpark mustard in Dijon.