British Heirloom Tomatoes

HOW WE GOT HERE

Thriving in warm climates with long daylight hours, tomatoes are well suited to the Mediterranean, where there is a strong tradition of growers saving seeds from their best performing plants and passing them down the generations.

Adapting to their immediate surroundings over time, some — Cuore del Vesuvio, Ligurian Bull’s Heart and San Marzano — have become so intimately linked to their native growing regions that they are named after them. Setting unsurpassable standards for flavour, these are our benchmark for quality.

We do not have the same traditions in the UK but today, the demand for local tomatoes is strong.

Sadly, in a bid to quickly satisfy the call for ‘home-grown’, many producers have sacrificed seasonality and flavour by opting for artificial growing conditions. Hybrid seeds, selected for yield are hydroponically or substrate grown all year round in heated greenhouses. The result? Local but bland, uniform and watery tomatoes.

We’re on board with the demand for local, when the climate is conducive to growth. In the UK that’s between July and September, but even then it takes skilled growers — and thoughtful varietal selection — to coax out incredible flavour in soil grown tomatoes.

There were already dedicated growers cultivating varietally diverse heirlooms in the UK but their scale was small. To revive seasonal UK-grown, flavour driven tomatoes with commercial viability, we knew we needed greater volume and consistency. We began our British Tomato Trial.

LAUNCHING A REVIVAL

SELECTING SEEDS

We started by trialling 15 varieties. Each was chosen for its wide genetic diversity, going far beyond the usual aesthetic and commercial markers. Finding the right varieties meant finding seed banks, seed breeders and seed savers who shared our priorities. In 2022 all of our varieties came from the US, and in 2023 we began working with people in the UK who save local, heirloom varieties.

SOIL-CENTRIC GROWERS

From Oli and Sean in Cornwall to Duncan in Lancashire, Wolves Lane Centre in Haringey, Adam in Pembrokeshire and our own farm in Hampshire, we are exploring how each variety responds to the UK’s varying growing conditions. Each grows directly in the soil, producing tomatoes that are a reflection of their year-round care for their ecosystems. Plus, they allow their seasons to be informed by the climate, refusing to heat their greenhouses or tunnels.

PLANNING FOR THE FUTURE, SAVING SEEDS

Landing on exceptional quality means constantly evolving and refining. Some of our initial 15 varieties did not perform as well as expected; we removed them from the mix and trialled six new ones in 2023. For the nine varieties that remained, we worked with our growers to save the seeds to plant again. Over time, we will explore how varieties adapt to each grower’s individual climates and ecosystems, producing plants that are unique reflections of their land.

RESPECTING BREEDERS, PROTECTING GROWERS

Taking part in this kind of trial is a risk for our growers and our team. Together, we have pulled years of time and resources into researching, acquiring and distributing the varieties that could pack a flavour punch and add the greatest diversity into our diets and ecosystems.

Beyond these complexities, with our growers we are taking a leap of faith in creating something totally from scratch, opening ourselves up to the challenges of unpredictable yields and seasons — something very few wholesalers would consider doing.

This level of risk requires some protection, and for good reason. Within 24 hours of launching the British Tomato Trial in 2022 we had competitors reaching out to two of our growers for varietal names and other details, attempting to take advantage of all the work we've already done. We want the people prepared to take the risks to benefit from the trial, while respecting the incredible work of the seed savers and breeders who have protected and patented the seeds. That’s why we’re not using the varietal names of the tomatoes. The beauty is in the mix: far from pursuing one winning variety, we seek a number to add to ecosystem and dietary diversity.

CROSSING BORDERS

We started our Heirloom Tomato project in the UK in 2022, hoping to combat the industrialised, season-less model of tomato production that dominates: hybrid seeds, heated greenhouses and hydroponics. In France, the picture is not so bleak: it’s easier to find flavour-driven heirloom tomatoes. However, larger growers will often focus on just a couple of better known varieties and smaller producers who grow a more diverse mix often don’t have the capability to keep up with demand.

With the success of the trial in the UK, we wanted to bring the same curated mix to our Paris chefs. By entrusting the seeds to Bernard in Montauban, we chose to collaborate with a passionate farmer who is determined to preserve traditional varieties. We aim to expand the project with growers in northern regions to offer our Paris chefs a long season of varietally diverse Heirloom Tomatoes, grown for flavour. Plus, as the season begins earlier in warmer parts of France — peaking in July — we’re able to extend it for our UK customers, taking any surplus from Paris to our London hub.