Shortage of tomatoes in the middle of February

[Stillcountingbeans]

Oh how my great-grandmother would have laughed!

www.theguardian.com/business/2023/feb/21/asda-morrisons-ration-tomatoes-peppers-fruit-shortages

And here is another one I've just seen- 8 pages so far.

www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/4746984-where-are-all-the-tomatoes

If we were willing to pay a fair price to farmers and not the ridiculously low prices supermarkets have driven them down to then they could afford to pop the electric on to warm their greenhouses.

Well I wandered around Sainsburys for at least 15 mins tonight looking for peppers and tomatoes to make a fajita kit tonight before I realised there weren't any!!

Fajita kit not as nice with kale, carrots and butternut squash

They're fascinating. As are her books. I've recently read her living like a Tudor book, she's a very good historian.

Could I ask what the book is called please? I love British food/agriculture history!

My theory on tomatoes is that supermarkets started selling more British toms, because people thought less food miles/support UK agriculture, but British toms are grown in heated glasshouses, so are now too expensive due to energy prices increases. Spanish toms actually lower carbon footprint as don’t need heat, even when you factor in transport. But I guess less supply of these atm as for years now supermarkets mainly buying UK.

Fresh tomatoes in Feb is a bit mad.

Fajita kit not as nice with kale, carrots and butternut squash

True, but I bet a baked chicken with kale, carrots and butternut squash would taste pretty good?!

As I've said on the other tomatoes threads, I did a recce this morning on behalf of MN and here in Italy we have tomatoes, BUT, because they're out of season here too, the cheapest are €2,99 for about 8 cherry tomatoes going up to €5,49 for about 6 salad tomatoes.

Judging by similar threads on here today, there won't be panic buying as there are any in some stores at all.

No shortage of tomatoes or peppers in Ireland either. But yeah, the tomatoes are pretty crap at this time of year.

@aghostinthethroat it's Diane Purkiss English Food a z people's history

I'm angry not because I want to eat unseasonal vegetables but because since Brexit started to really kick in my choices of many products has declined.
I went to Madrid last year and we wandered around the supermarket like escaped East Berliners. My teen DD's were amazed at all the choice that has disappeared from our supermarkets. It actually made me really really sad to see them saying god our shops are crap mum.
So yes we could preserve tomatoes or just eat the seasonal root veg but I don't want to.
I don't want people telling me the tomatoes taste rank in Feb anyway. I know that. I would like some lettuce and a pepper or two. Cheese and deli items are much reduced too.
You all know that often fruit and veg is past it's best as well.
I hate the fact that even the BBC lie to us when it's clear that although there may have been some weather issues, the rest of Europe has plenty of produce. They may be having to pay a bit more for it but the shops are full. Reporting from Ireland shows they have plenty of salad veg.

Well that’s great but the only “veg” I eat is salad veg. It must be 30 years since I’ve eaten something like carrots or broccoli. I don’t like veg and will only eat salads for healthy stuff.

id rather just eat toast and vitamin tablets over winter if it was only seasonal/root veg stuff on offer 🤷🏻‍♀️.

I’m just popping in for the Ruth Goodman fandom. She is brilliant.

And she says in interview that, while she would be happy to visit our historical past (with the right vaccines) she definitely wouldn’t want to live there!

It's been very poor weather in Spain and Morocco since Christmas, so the tomatoes haven't been ripening. It should be back to normal again shortly.

Prices were up at the Spanish market I was at at the weekend, and the local supermarket had no red peppers.

Tea and coffee aren't perishable though. I'd hope that tea and coffee is grown when it naturally does (more or less) and then warehoused and sold over the next year.

Whereas with fresh tomatoes, you have to sell them within a week or two at most of them being harvested. Or preserve them and store/sell them canned until the next harvest is ready.

I agree that we need to eat more seasonally and if we want tomatoes or soft fruit in winter, stick to the canned or frozen versions.

It's not just a UK problem though. As in a post-Brexit, border shipping difficulties issue.

In Ireland, where we also depend on Spanish and Egyptian crops at this time of year, we have significant shortages of tomatoes, peppers, salads and berries. And local producers cannot afford the costs of heating their greenhouses for winter crops.

Yields had already been lower in 2022 with lower levels of fertiliser due to the Ukraine-Russia war. And weather conditions being different to normal patterns. Eggs and chicken and other poultry are affected by the bird flu outbreaks.

There is still plenty of food. You just have less choice. And may need to buy things like carrots and parsnips rather than Mediterranean type veggies. Use fewer eggs. But there's still plenty to eat, just in different ways.

@ilovebagpuss there are lots of gaps in Ireland, I posted on a similar thread yesterday about all the gaps in the past few weeks when I've been shopping. And I don't look for things like aubergine, cucumber, kale etc. So don't believe it's only the UK.

We eat a lot of veg in our house and have had issues getting almost all types. And while I can still get cauliflower consistently, they are very very small this year compared to normal.

There are some tea producers in Scotland.

Whilst I accept eating seasonally is sensible and enjoy my root veg the cold snap in Dec has also knackered domestic greens. So kale is super expensive right now, domestic greenhouses and poly tunnels are not producing as much as seedlings planted in autumn just died. The issue isn't importing alone. We don't have the means to produce enough seasonal fresh produce domestically to meet demand. We will all get scurvy if we only eat pots from Jan until April and the population has more than doubled since your Gran was born. It's a sign of a really huge issue in our domestic food strategy and the current govt agri strategy is not really adapted to address it. We have been net importers of food for most of the last century and do not have the land to meet our needs internally. The really disturbing history to look at is what happened towards the end of WW2 and immediately afterwards during the extremes of food scarcity when imports were hugely restricted - children's nutrition needs were prioritized but adults were rationed a diet that was nowhere near meeting their energy needs as US and Canadian wheat supplies were needed across Europe.

I've still got butternut squash I grew and harvested in September. It makes you wonder how fresh some vegetables in the shops are.

At least there won't be panic buying of bags of salad leaves because they don't keep as well as toilet rolls.

I think that the lack of choice and often quality has always been there even pre brexit. When you visit the European Mediterranean markets they alway have such a vast selection of fresh fruit and veg, many often don’t make it to our shores but then that’s the UK climate for you. Best part of a holiday is for me is scooping up the local goods. Many Middle Eastern markets in the UK have a good choice but tomatoes etc at this time of year are shipped in so will never taste as good as when they’re in season.

Agree with this, French and Italian markets are mind blowing and always have been. Even the fruit and veg sections of supermarkets put ours to shame, in the range of different varieties and the way they are presented.

This is primarily a problem with weather conditions and a bad harvest.

I must say I hadn't even noticed, I buy virtually all my veg from local producers and it's all seasonal.

Of course Middle Eastern and Mediterranean markets offer much more variety and beautifully fresh produce - their climate is much warmer!

We need to learn to love our own fresh produce - the local markets and even supermarkets are full of home grown kale, squash, cauliflower, carrots, parsnips etc

And in summer we produce tasty tomatoes, strawberries, cherries etc etc

I honestly would never dream of buying tomatoes in February. Do they even taste nice?