Tomatoes - one of the most widely grown and consumed fruits in the world

We are in the middle of the tomato harvest and it’s hard to beat a warm tomato fresh picked from the vine, with basil, olive oil and salt.

The UK season stretches from May to October.  Heating in UK glasshouses extends that season from February until November, which whilst helping the UK compete with imports, raises the thorny question of artificial light and heat. Perhaps we should enjoy UK seasonal tomatoes at their tastiest best and not buy them out of season.

In the UK we eat around 500,000 tonnes of fresh tomatoes every year.  British growers currently produce around a fifth.  The rest, some 400,000 tonnes  are imported from elsewhere in the world.

The UK imports more fresh produce from Spain than any other country and much of this will come from Almeria where workers rights abuses are widespread. Abuses include refusal of legal wages, forced labour, sexual assault and intimidation. Tomatoes bought from supermarkets especially in the winter months are likely sourced from exploitative farms. Another reason to eat seasonally.

The first genetically modified (GM) food ever made commercially available to the public was a tomato, invented in the US in 1994. Back in 1996, Sainsbury’s introduced a tomato puree made from this GM Flavr Savr tomato, but consumer opposition saw it withdrawn from sale in 1999. Currently, no GM tomatoes are grown in the UK. However researchers from the John Innes Center in the U.K., by incorporating genes from snapdragon flowers, have developed a purple tomato that has  high levels of anthocyanins. Whilst not available in the UK it is  licensed for use in the US.

The exact origin of the tomato plant is not known, though it is generally thought to have evolved millions of years ago  from the prehistoric plant Nighshade and it was the Aztecs in South America that managed to cultivate the plant.

The Spanish conqueror Hernan Cortes, when he destroyed the Aztec empire in the 16th century, took the seeds back home around 1520.  Seeing that the tomato grew well in a warm Mediterranean climate, the  Spanish government started encouraging its production and introducing the tomato to other countries.

Tomatoes were introduced to England in 1597, but were viewed as unhealthy, poisonous and unfit to eat.  As a result, tomatoes were primarily grown as decorative plants rather than being used in cooking. By the mid-18th century opinions began to change and in the 19th century commercial tomato growing began in Britain.

Today tomatoes are one of the most popular crops to grow in the garden or allotment.Home grown tomatoes, packed full of nutrients, taste better than anything you can buy in the shops! If you can't grow your own source from a local grower through a box schenme or farmers market.