On 25/01/2014 23:16, Sacha wrote:
On 2014-01-25 15:14:59 +0000, David Hill said:

On 25/01/2014 13:03, sacha wrote:
On 2014-01-25 10:46:34 +0000, David Hill said:

On 24/01/2014 10:39, Sacha wrote:
The island's tomato production has almost ground to a halt and it used
to be its lifeblood. Thank goodness for the finance industry and I
never
thought I'd hear myself say that! Anthony Le Page who employs 15
workers
on his 2ha glasshouses in the Vale is closing down. The stretch of
water
between England and the islands is one of the significant causes.
About
50 years ago, the tomato growing employed more than half the island's
population.


(This got lost first time I posted it, probably because I've changed
from XP pro to windows 7)

Now, come on Sacha.
It's by no means another British industry hitting the buffers, rather
the tomato industry in the UK is on the up and up, with sites like
Thanet Earth and several mega units using combined heat and power
plants, and waste heat to heat the houses; if you can call those multi
hectare structures houses; to produce all year round tomatoes, and
going by some I bought in Tesco last week #; not those stupid little
things; they had good flavour for winter tomatoes.
When you have these mega houses just down the road so to speak, and
not over some very choppy water, and with production 2 or 3 times per
sq meter than it used to be in "The good old days"it's time for
Guernsey to look for much higher value produce.
I remember in my younger day we used to get £1.00 a pound for the
first tomatoes, but that never lasted more than a couple of weeks,
likewise with the first Strawberries, and that was 50+ years ago.
Today no one would pay the modern equivalent price.
David @ the side of Swansea Bay where it is yet again raining.

Oh, all the reasons for the growing industry coming to a natural end are
perfectly logical ones. And the finance industry has taken over in terms
of island prosperity and so forth. I'm having a nostalgic moment. Do you
know which tomatoes you bought from Tesco? I have yet to find any worth
having!


All I can say is that they were vine tomatoes.
Have you noticed that whilst every pack of strawberries from wherever
has the variety on the pack the same is not true of most fruit and veg.
With around 20 varieties of Sprouts being grown commercially they are
not named on the box/pack.
The same for tomatoes and peppers.
David@ a yet again rainy side of Swansea Bay.

I do all my supermarket shopping online and in the case of Tesco have
asked them to show country of origin at least three times. It never
happens clearly enough on the online packs.

You may find browsing this site will be of interest
http://www.britishtomatoes.co.uk/home