After all the excitement of the Olympics, attention has focused once again this month on the really big sporting event of the year - the race to find Britain’s tastiest tomato.
In three years of competitions organised by the British Tomato Growers’ Association (TGA), at both the National Fruit Show in Kent and the Totally Tomato Show in Sussex, the gold medal had always gone to the Wight Salads Group.
Until now that is. Never willing to give up without a fight, Lancashire grower Flavourfresh Salads turned the tables in the latest tomato Olympiad, with its entries taking not just gold, but also silver and bronze in the recent National Fruit Show, with Wight Salads this year trailing in Flavourfresh’s wake.
Baby plum variety Santini took first place, with the runner up another baby plum, Empreza. Third place went to the cocktail tomato Amoroso. In addition to prize money from sponsors Marks & Spencer, the winner was awarded the David Stapley trophy by the TGA in memory of the renowned tomato grower from Kent.
Although the competition was staged towards the end of the British tomato season, there were 39 entries in four separate classes at the show, ranging from tiny sweet cherries to buxom golden beefsteaks. Despite the poor summer, the standard of entries was better than ever according to the judges, proof of the skill of British growers and the great benefits of growing crops in glasshouses in today’s unpredictable climate.
The tastiest tomato competition at West Dean Gardens in Sussex invited entries from both commercial growers and gardeners. The professionals swept the board, and monoploised the top-10. “Although we are having some fun with these competitions,” said TGA spokesman Gerry Hayman, “we do have a serious message, which is that we produce the best tasting tomatoes money can buy. We are constantly asked by the public why tomatoes don’t taste like they used to. We can now say, with our hands on our hearts, it’s because they taste even better - as long as they are British of course.”
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