Where are all the tomatoes?

[verdantverdure]

I'll admit it, I eat a lot of tomatoes.

Daily probably.

But where are they?

AIBU to ask you if there are tomatoes where you live?

Tomatoes in Feb should cost a lot unless you live near the equator! It’s ridiculous to expect them to be cheap.

@ChungusBoi I recall as a teenager that salad were often Chinese leaves, grated carrot and one measly tomato in the winter.

In Waitrose yesterday (South east) there were Essentials salad and plum tomatoes, some cherries on the vine and organic tomatoes. The shelves were hardly bare although not stacked. The lady next to me was complaining miserably about the lack of choice. I found her behaviour quite remarkable.

I would've liked that choice! I managed to buy two tomatoes (big ones) on the vine from a local independent. The other 4 that were there looked a bit green to be honest, that was it!

Haha yes. Winter salad. Made with finely chopped cabbage and grated carrot in my parents house, and usually containing something like sultanas for ‘interest’. 😂

Waitrose know their customers are less price sensitive than other supermarkets so probably can afford to pay a little more to growers to help offset the increased costs.

I was surprised having read this thread that there were so many.

Tomatoes in Feb should cost a lot unless you live near the equator! It’s ridiculous to expect them to be cheap.

Well, people do. That’s why there aren’t any.

They have all been bought up by people used to paying more and willing to pay the current market rate.

Yes that’s the basics of it. It goes to show detatched we have become from how the food we eat is produced.

Lots of things are imported including the MN beloved lentils. Or haricot beans for baked beans. Bacon.
Most of our shopping baskets at any given time are mainly imported.

Waitrose know their customers are less price sensitive than other supermarkets so probably can afford to pay a little more to growers to help offset the increased costs

Ditto the Co-op - it has a deliberate ethics policy, and doesn't seem to be having anything like the outages of the "screw them down to the cheapest price" retailers

Arrived in Bristol airport earlier and bought tomatoes and some peppers from Marks, in case there are difficulties tomorrow when I go food shopping!

Peppers and cucumbers seem to be our mystery items this week 🤷‍♀️

Had to drive through Yeovil this morning, an found a Lidl. Boxes of peppers and tomatoes. Not sure about cucumbers as I wasn't looking for them. All fruit and veg looked well stocked.

Well, yes. I believe the only two things for which the UK is entirely self-sufficient are lamb and barley, and there's only so much lamb hotpot anyone can eat!

But I do feel there is a substantive difference between importing products that can be grown in season, without undue distress to the local environment, and then dried, preserved or processed and exported via road or boat (like rice or lentils), and importing products that are being forced out of season at the expense of the the local water supply and air freighted in (like tomatoes and strawberries). I'm no purist, it wouldn't be practical, but I do try to avoid the latter.

The government got plenty of warning that this would happen

Thread
twitter.com/jayrayner1/status/1628677313385594882?t=6b3hLrmGAE6nl1S_G6tn8Q&s=19
SALAD VEG, A THREAD: saying I told you so is not attractive; that doesn't mean it's not worth saying. For ten yrs I've argued that the running down of UK farming leaves us vulnerable to external shocks. Here's the paper I wrote for @michaelgove in 2017 1/

Surprised about lamb considering how much lamb from NZ you can see in shops. Do we export lots to have to import?

That has more to do with the NZ UK trade deal

Further to earlier comments about more tomatoes on the front line in war torn Ukraine than in the U.K.:

Independent greengrocers have everything here locally. It really must be a shop/location thing.

Maybe in areas where more cucumbers go to waste or something so they are sending them to places where they sell out rather than rot

I have one

My friend texted me today that she was picking the tomato out of her bought sandwich and I did I want her to send it.

I don't think we have any independent green grocers nearby. The corner shops often sell some fruit and veg though.

Hahaha

I didn't see tomatoes or peppers in Waitrose today (North East England).

Different suppliers. That's why some big shops still have too

I've given up looking. Everyone I know locally knows to get me salad if they see any.