Yesterday I read on the internet that bananas are technically berries and that almonds are nuts. More surprisingly I discovered that avocados are mammals, most cucumbers are haunted and that potatoes are not real. So maybe you shouldn’t believe everything that you read on the internet. That doesn’t mean that there isn’t truth out there however. Today I am going to share the biggest bang you can get for your vegetable buck – Tomatoes.
The tomato originates from South America, and yes its a bloody fruit, but unless you want to eat it with pouncey celebrity savoury ice cream shut up about it already. Indigenous to Peru and Ecuador, the Aztecs were thought to be the first to cultivate it, the Spanish conquistadors found them growing in Montezuma’s garden in the sixteenth century and took it home as they thought it would make an excellent feta salad.
Tumbler F1 tomatoes are particularly amazing, genetically designed to be stuck in a pot. For £1.25 per plant (yes I am that lazy and unmotivated when it comes to vegetables) I get a 6″ plant ready to be potted up into a 4 litre pot. So for £5 I get two potted up tomato plants, add £3 for some tomato food. The crop yield is incredible, I have been getting between 5 – 7 tomatoes a day, they smell how tomatoes used to smell before the shops were over run by large fleshy watery tasteless nastiness hydroponically grown in some heavily green housed region of the Netherlands. .
Chopped up with onions and lightly simmered with some water and herbs and 45 minutes later your tomatoes are a tasty passata to mix with pasta (add anchovies and olives – you get the idea) . Or simmer for a bit longer and use it on top of your pizza base. Completely boil the hell out of it and add an outrage of sugar and you have ketchup. So whilst Wiki states that this fruit can be eaten raw, there is no reason why you should do so if you are going to be a baby about it.
I have grown this variety for around 10 years and have never had any blight issues. The only negative aspect of growing tomatoes in such a confined space is that they need regular watering. Water retaining gel crystals can be used in moderation, but they do cut down the amount of compost in the pot if you ignore the instructions and pour half the box in.
