Growing Red, White and Blue (Yes Blue) Tomatoes

Mummy, Daddy and I were really upset when we found out that 4 out of every 5 tomatoes that we eat in the UK are imported from other countries.  May 18th-24th is British Tomato Week so I’m going to try to persuade you to have a go at growing your own (or at least eating British) this year.

Tomato Facts

Tomatoes are the most widely grown ‘vegetable’ (ok, you and I both know they’re a fruit) in the world.  They are grown from as far North as Iceland and as far South as the Falkland Islands. Some have even been grown in space. But British tomatoes taste best as they can be harvested when riper with less distance to travel to reach our tummies.  They can be in the shops within 24 hours of harvest.
Science boffins have just found out that the colour of light the tomatoes are grown in makes tomatoes taste differently and can vary the amount of vitamins they contain.  The energy efficient LED lights cost less so UK farmers will be able to compete with cheaper imported tomatoes.  The first ever British Winter tomato crops were harvested in December 2014.

Yummy tomatoes

Growing your own

The time to reach tummy is even less if you grown your own. Tomato seeds are normally sown between February and April.  Don’t worry if you’ve not sown any seed, you’re not too late to grow tomatoes this year as as you can easily pick up some small plants at garden centres or specialist tomato selling websites.  For expert tips on growing tomatoes from seed (for next year) and making yummy chutney read my Tasty Tomato blog.

Despite the biggest UK tomatoes greenhouse being the size if 25 football pitches (!!), you don’t need much space to grown your own. Just pick types that will happily grow in pots or even a hanging basket. Sunlight rather than heat is the thing that make for best tomatoes.  If its too hot the plants produce less fruit and they don’t taste as good or last as long.  Let’s hope we get a sunny Summer then!

What varieties to grow

By growing your own you can get a really big range of colours, sizes and flavours.  Euan is growing black tomatoes this year but I never knew you can get pink, white and even indigo blue tomatoes. If your garden does suffer from blight you can pick certain varieties such as Ferline, Legend and Losetto that are more resistant to the disease. But they can still catch it in warm, wet weather.

Losetto has the bonus of being way to grow in containers in small gardens. Sungold is an orange coloured cherry tomato that loads of people think is the sweetest and best tasting of all. Shirley is one of Euan’s granddad’s favourites and he’s been growing tomatoes for 60 years. It is a medium sized tomato that normally gives a good crop. Rambling Redstrip is a great one for hanging baskets and has lovely green stripes on the red tomatoes.  It has a long cropping season too.

Euan likes to give his home grown tomatoes a bit of a taste test first!

Problems to look out for

Although they looking nothing alike, tomatoes and potatoes are related to each other (I think they’re second cousins once removed or something).  So tomatoes can also suffer from the nasty sounding disease blight. It’s caused by a fungus and is normally more of a problem in tomatoes grown outside as the fungus likes damp weather (look out for my blog all about it next month).  The brainy folk at the RHS have useful info on their webpages about blight and other tomato diseases such as blossom end rot and cracked or split tomatoes (both can be prevented with regular watering).
Just make sure to water the soil and not the plants- tomatoes hate getting their leaves and stems wet (almost as much army BFF Euan hates getting his hair wet!)

My favourite way to eat home grown tomatoes is right off the plant when you can still feel the sunshine on their skin, yum. Even in pasta sauces Mummy says they don’t need cooking as they are so yummy.  She just chops some up with garlic and torn basil and tosses them through pasta with some olive oil.

I’m off to check on our little tomato plants to make sure they’re got enough water.

Make sure you buy British this week.

The “Lulu Burt Best of 2014 Awards”

Mummy says we’ve started a New Year called 2015 and it will be the year of the Sheep in the Chinese calendar.  That’s fab as both me and my BFF Euan LOVE our toy sheep (both called Baa Baa!).  I had an amazing time in 2014 so am hoping 2015 will be just as exciting.  Here are my favourite things from 2014, otherwise known as the “Lulu Burt Best of 2014 Awards”.

Best product I used in garden

I had lots of fun last Spring using the fabby kids gardening tools from Twigz.  I used them to grow veggies and flowers from seed and to look after the seedlings and plants as they got bigger. My favourite item was the watering can.

Twigz do a wonderful range of garden tools for children

Best things I grew (apart from taller that is!)

Regular readers will know that I LOVE a big bright sunflower.  I even gave them away in the party bags from my birthday party last year.  Two of my others faves to grow are tomatoes and potatoes. Imagine my excitement at discovering the TomTato plant.  It grows tomatoes above the ground and potatoes below, all at the same time, cool huh? The big crop of sweet tomatoes was really, really yummy but the crop of potatoes didn’t stretch very far when it came to feeding a growing girl. It still wins the prize for yummy sweet tomatoes and being really different.

Best books I reviewed

The book is PACKED full of lots
(well 101 to be precise) of awesome ideas

Best places I visited

Me officially opening MY park!

 

Best things I’ve made

Mummy tells me it is better to give a gift than to get one.  This year I had lots of fun making presents for Mummy on Mothers Day and Daddy on Father’s day. Since I’m just little I didn’t have many pennies to spend so made do with up-cycling things from our kitchen.

Pansies in cheese boxes makes a lovely gift

My decorated tin can planters

 

Best thing that happened in 2014

BIG DRUM ROLL PLEASE……. the overall, most wonderful and exciting thing that happened to me in 2014 was that I became a big sister. My very cute and cuddly (but not very good at playing hide and seek yet) little sister Tilda was born in November 2014.   I can’t wait until she is old enough to do some gardening with me!

Tilda and I – double cuteness!

Wow, I did have a very busy year.  What did you get up to in 2014?  I’d love to hear all about your adventures. Let’s have even more in 2015!

Lulu xx