Tomato Red Alert

'Red Alert' is a recent English variety that forms a small, very compact bush about 45 cm high and wide. It produces heavy clusters of medium-sized, deep red, and slightly oblong fruit. This early-season variety will still have good flavour in regions with short, cool summers. Each plant produces about three kilos of fruit and thrives wonderfully in a pot or garden. Sow from February to April and enjoy from June to September.

Tomatoes are native to South and Central America. Several varieties were already cultivated by the Incas long before the arrival of the Conquistadors, and nowadays, the sheer abundance of tomato varieties is quite astounding. The name "tomato" is derived from the Inca word "Tomatl" and refers to both the plant and its fruit. Tomatoes come in all shapes and sizes, and a fabulous array of colours is available (red, of course, but also green, yellow and - for a few rare varieties - blue). Older varieties are plants with indeterminate growth that can live up to two years. The more recent varieties are of so-called determinate growth (also known as "bush" tomatoes), meaning they remain compact, thus limiting the need to stake or train them.

Tomatoes are among the many foods first discovered in the New World, such as beans, corn, squash, potatoes and chillies. However, tomatoes took considerably longer to reach our taste buds... and for good reason! For a long time, they were cultivated for their aesthetic and medicinal qualities. The similarity of their fruit to that of the Mandrake plant (also in the Solanaceae family) led people to believe they were toxic and unfit for human consumption. Only at the beginning of the 20th century did Europeans start to appreciate tomatoes for their unique taste, and the rest is history!

Tomatoes' undeniably pretty fruit brings joy and colour to the vegetable garden. They also boast many nutritional benefits. Like most vegetables, tomatoes are low in calories and have a high water content, but they also contain a very interesting molecule: lycopene, a powerful antioxidant. The longer the tomatoes are cooked, the more lycopene is released. Tomatoes are also remarkably rich in vitamin C, provitamin A, and trace elements.

Nowadays, their gustatory and nutritional qualities are well established. For the gardener, tomatoes are one of the summer garden's highlights. Determine how your tomatoes will be used (in a salad? in a soup? eaten directly off the plant?) and when you would like to harvest them, and then choose your varieties accordingly. Some varieties might be more suitable depending on where you live and how much sunshine the plants will get. Rest assured, there are many varieties to choose from. While tomato plants unavoidably require lots of sun, they don't necessarily need lots of space to grow. A container or a bin full of good soil is an ideal home for a cherry tomato plant, meaning that even with a small balcony or greenhouse, you can still grow these beautiful vegetables. Ensure you don't pick any stems, leaves or unripe fruit, as they contain solanine and should not be consumed.

Harvesting: Depending on whether you are growing an early or late-season variety, it can take 50 to 100 days from the date you transplant the seedlings to the date you harvest the fruit. As a rule, tomatoes are ready to be picked when they have completely taken on the colour shown on the packet and when their texture—though firm—has a slight give to it. Fruit picked with its stem will keep for longer.

Preservation: Tomatoes with a low water content keep for longer. They will be fine for a few days in the vegetable compartment in the fridge or spread out on a newspaper in a cool room. To keep them longer, they can be dried, frozen, canned or made into delicious chutneys, tomato sauce or juice. We recommend saving a few for a tomato confit – it's easy to make and very tasty. Cut your tomatoes in half and set aside the juice. Place your tomato halves face up in a large baking pan. Sprinkle with salt, pepper, a bit of sugar and bake in the oven for at least an hour on a low setting. Remove the tomatoes and eat them immediately; otherwise, put them in a glass jar and cover them with olive oil to be eaten later.

Good to know: sowing several varieties of tomato each year will prevent you from losing your whole crop to bad weather or disease.

Blossom-end rot, caused by a lack of calcium, is a common problem when growing tomatoes. To prevent this, spray your plants regularly with comfrey liquid fertiliser.

When transplanting, bury the stem up to the first set of leaves. This will stimulate root growth and guarantee bigger and better fruit.

Plants that grow well in the garden often taste superb together, too – tomatoes and basil are a perfect example.