Fortnight that is ripe for the picking of tomatoes
Plum, cherry or beef, it’s time to celebrate one of the most popular salad ingredient – British Tomato Fortnight runs from May 27 to June 9.
The celebration highlights the equality and flavours of homegrown tomatoes and shines a spotlight on the efforts of British tomato growers, promotes the consumption of locally grown produce and encourages everyone to savour the taste of summer.
The timing is aligned with the peak tomato-growing season.
You can get involved in the fortnight by:
1 Visiting local farmers’ markets, farm shops, or supermarkets to discover a wide variety of British-grown tomatoes.
2 Taste the different flavours, from sweet cherry tomatoes to tangy beefsteak varieties.
3 Explore the culinary possibilities of British tomatoes by trying new recipes that highlight their freshness and taste.
From salads and salsas to soups and pasta sauces, let your creativity soar.
4 Share your love for British tomatoes on social media by posting pictures of your culinary creations. Use the hashtag #Britishtomatofortnight to join the online conversation
5 Delve into the world of tomato growing by visiting local farms, participating in guided tours or engaging with online resources provided by British tomato growers’ associations. Tomato facts
1 We eat 500,000 tonnes very year – that’s two classic British tomatoes per week or more than 100 per year.
2 Tomatoes are not always red – the can be yellow, pink, purple, black and white.
3 There are more than 3,000 varieties of heirloom or heritage tomatoes grown globally, and more than 15,000 known varieties in total.
4 Tomatoes are a fruit – defined as the edible part of the plant containing seeds, such as a tomato, whereas a vegetable is the stem, leaf or root.
5 When tomatoes were first introduced to Europe in the 16th Century, they were small, golden and cherrysized. This appearance gave them the name ‘golden apples’. The French believed they were aphrodisiacs and named them ‘love apples’.