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?

Oh my GOD! I haven't been able to do anything like that for weeks. I am extremely envious.

If you look for the darker green peppers, they have ripened more and will turn red even after its been picked.

Keep them in a dark spot and they should turn red.

(I should add that it works for me, but I live in a hot country so I don't know if temperature is a factor)

Yesterday I tried six different shops before I found any tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers 😮

Please could you recommend me a seed type? I've been thinking about growing them on sunny windowsills along with some salad leaves but don't know where to start.

This is my life lately.

None in our huge sainsbury’s at the weekend nor were there cucumbers or peppers (nw)
there were however plenty in nearby asda

I'm a chef and one of my supplier basically explained the lack of tomatoes down to crap weather in Southern Europe where most if the crops come from this time of year.

The supermarkets are blaming bad weather though this doesn’t seem to be affecting supplies in Europe. Twitter thread with various thoughts . HERE.. I’m not sure what the reaction would be if supermarkets did vocally blame leaving the common market?

My local Lidl and Waitrose ( in south west town) were both out over the weekend, the local farm shop had a limited supply and the deli which usually has an amazing tomato display didnt! I’m off out hunting at lunchtime (major city centre) and will report back!

We have them but they don't taste nice at all.

Just fresh tomatoes @SweetSenorita or do you hate pizza and lasagne and tikka masala etc as well?

I bought one of the last four packs of tomatoes (or any sort, and these were the basics cherry tomatoes, not the nice mini plums I was hoping for) on Saturday lunchtime in Asda.

But tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers are out of season, it's February. Why would you buy the horrible tasting, artificially-ripened, overpriced ones at this time of year anyway?

I know this sounds quite ridiculous, but we could not get cherry tomatoes at quite a lot of shops last year or so. It turns out that they were just sold out because of that tomato and pasta tiktok video that went viral....

You do need a shit load of tomatoes for that meal, but to create a shortage is quite bonkers.

Homegrown tomatoes are delicious and relatively easy to grow, but unless you have a smallholding you'd never be able to keep up with the needs of an average family, IMHO.

You'd think if Italy and Spain had both had bad harvests we could get tomatoes from farther afield if we had to.

Although to be honest I though climate change was just supposed to affect tinned tomato production, not fresh. They can grow them gear round, can't they?

I don't know anything about Spain.

So am I. I could do without the mental load of thinking what to do instead

We grow a lot of tomatoes and I can recommend Johnsons Sungold F1 which are an orange cherry tomato, we have tried lots of different ones and these are the best, for who was asking for tomato seed recommendations

I was only planning on doing a windowsill full @Roundaboot. Our garden is a thriving snail and slug habitat

Thank you. I'll look them up.

That's one of the things our children can cook. I don't think it's that this time.

I'm also quite cynical , as when people were saying in the UK that issues were Ukraine or weather or whatever we were living in Copenhagen at the time and had no supply issues whatsoever of any fruit or veg, across all supermarkets. Which could only lead to one conclusion and that was that Brexit issues were again in the mix- but shops reluctant to be upfront about it-products being checked, held up etc - it may be different at the moment- but it was certainly the case in spring last year

I feel a song coming on...

"Yes! We have no tomatoes,
We have-a no tomatoes day"

What do you have in your lunchtime salad then? I guess I'm quite basic and boringly British, but I like salad leaves, tomato and cucumber with some black olives.

We do the "eat the rainbow" approach to nutrition, and tomatoes and peppers are a good way to get red food into us.

(We have macular degeneration in the family so we make sure to get plenty of utein and zeaxanthin from red and orange veg.)

Fair enough! I've never grown them indoor but as I say, they are easy enough outdoors. You can get varieties specifically for hanging baskets, which might keep them out of reach of slimey critters.

Ha!