I can tell when a column strikes a nerve with a broad assortment of readers. People I encounter on Wednesday morning stop me to add their 2 cents. And if the topic of the week really resonates, I’ll get e-mails and phone calls.

All of these things happened last week after I took aim at a pathetic tomato slice that appeared on my plate at an area restaurant. I argued last week that when we consumers fail to insist on quality produce, we create a market for bad produce, and bad produce is what we’ll get.

This is still my argument, but until I got your feedback, I wondered whether I was in a disgruntled minority. What I am discovering is that a lot of people find a trip to the produce department of a supermarket to be a depressing experience. The surprising thing to me is the depth of the irritation people are expressing.

One woman who called me said she tried to talk to the produce manager of her neighborhood supermarket about bad tomatoes and got nowhere. The manager merely defended the supply system that is in place for that supermarket. In fairness, he may not have felt that he could do much about it himself — but that is exactly one of the attitudes that keep the bad produce coming our way.

What consumers need to do is to vote their dollars in two ways. Don’t buy produce that obviously isn’t ripe, and when you get tricked, ask for your money back. Some grocery stores will refund on the receipt alone, without the return of the produce.

Chuck Magerl, proprietor of the Free State Brewery in Lawrence, e-mailed me to offer the restaurant perspective on the issue, which he said “isn’t as simple as you may envision.”

Unlike most restaurants, Free State raises its own tomatoes, which ensures a supply of ripe and flavorful fruit — when tomatoes are in season. Free State also buys from local growers when its own plants can’t cover the restaurant’s needs. During the past few weeks, however, the area tomato crop has stopped producing temporarily. That means that even restaurants that place a premium on fresh produce have had to seek alternative sources.

“When the options dry up on the local fruits and we’re forced back to the K.C. houses, their offerings are so far below expectation that it’s depressing,” Magerl said.

The restaurant also has tried to substitute different kinds of tomatoes, he said. “We’ve found some cherry and grape varieties available, but I’m amazed at the folks who need something that appears like a tomato slice on their sandwich.”

What Magerl is hinting at is really just common sense: Don’t insist on eating produce that is not in season. When you do, you’ll get a California hot-house tomato that was picked three weeks early and then gassed into pseudo-ripeness.

Our grandparents didn’t have this problem, because they canned and had root cellars. They also had a different perception of food altogether and clearly understood it to be grown or raised according to the calendar.

We, on the other hand, have come to view food as something that is manufactured and packaged. We want our produce uniform and unblemished and we want it whenever we want it. Unfortunately, nature hasn’t followed the trend.