It’s all gone a bit Billy Bonkers this week in terms of the number of mentions tomatoes have had in the press. Not only are they apparently the most googled of all fruit featuring on 53.6 million webpages (so thank you to everyone who reads my contribution to that number – given the vast array of tomatoeyness out there -I’ve no idea how you found me – but am very glad you did!) but it’s also been British Tomato Week. And all the more to celebrate this year due to the fact that wonderful April light levels have been very beneficial to British Glasshouse crops. Whilst poor old Spain seems to have all our rain – which has put them behind on crop timings.
So rather than me talk tomato today – I’ve linked to just a few of the other slices of tomato writing out there!
I especially liked this headline – the Glory of the Great British Tomato – it’s dambusters with boucing red tomatoes!
And whereas a while ago Murano from Tesco was THE new tomato – now all eyes are on “Super Sweetini” from Marks & Spencer – with (always my favourite) – a tiny bit of science and a few new technical terms to get to grips with – here it’s “nano moles” of which when it comes to glutamic acid – Super Sweetini has 36 – compared to a standard tomato – clocking in at a mere 20 nano moles.
The science is one thing – statistics another. On the British Tomato website it states we eat on average about 8.5kg of fresh tomatoes per year in the UK. And then in the article from the Independent it calculates our spend at £10 per year – which (and maths has never been my strong point so correct me if I’m wrong – please!) I think makes the average price of those fresh tomatoes 85 pence per kg. But unless all us home growers and our “are you sure you don’t want any tomatoes to take home with you” approach is depressing the overall price – I don’t think all those number add up. Makes just growing them seem a whole lot simpler!
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Two things. First, although it’s good to have one, I don’t understand why British Tomato Week is in May, when there are few native-grown fruits around. Why not August, when there’s a glut of home-grown? And those pricings are ridiculous! I’m working on the comparison with organic tomatoes on the vine, which are around £10/kg at the supermarket (maybe less in the summer). Obviously, for the country, you have to factor in the whole range of prices, plus passata, tinned, and purée, but still, their costings must be wrong. PS – 8.5kg at £10 is £1.18ish per kilo.
Anyway, GO TOMATOES!
Can you get nano mole traps? With that many, M & S are going to need them.
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Or maybe they have achieved such a high count by placing nano moles in rival supermarkets to feed back surreptitious messages written in glutamic acid to prevent anyone reading them. I understand that John Le Carre’s latest book is called “The Tomato That Came In From The Cold”, available via Checkout Charlie at a store near you. [I love a
Sally, I didn’t realise it was Tomato Week this week, ah well I missed the street party. Never mind, you and your plants can enjoy This song about home grown tomatoes instead (YouTube – needs Flash plugin). Love the old boy on the uke – classic!
I might just buy some Super Sweetini – I’m sure it would be fun to de-hybridise. I’m not sure about the nano moles though, i don’t want micro-molehills in my garden; I’d have to make a mini-mountain out of them!
Oh clever, I didn’t close the a href tag… my HTML skillz are slipping… sorry…
So now we really know what’s on that tomato cassette of yours!!
I love the recipe suggestions delivered by lyric! And the fact that the song is delivered with such straight faces! I can perhaps understand though why the Tomato Week folk didn’t make their anthem of the week – it would difficult after all these years to reposition the ukulele to be associated with tomato growing – when we all know it’s really all about cleaning windows!
Ha ! We would all spot the “undercover agent” immediately due to the flaws in his story – first rule of tomatoes – no tomato should ever come in from the cold – as they should never be in the fridge in the first place! It would be “The Tomato that never was”. Write us in as the calyx codebreakers!
I like the GO TOMATOES sentiment – It will be my muttered mantra as I do my daily inspection of the black pails! If it’s any consolation you have been joined in “very windyness”. There had to be emergency tieing up action today as the plants hung on by their roots -and there was much flapping of the sides of the growhouse -it’s calmed down now – but early today – there was a definite “storm is a’ coming” feverishness in the air!