Hope this isn't breaking any rules.

I'm not promoting anything or any business, but just happened to have a bit of spare time and was perusing the internet. I came across a few sites on commercial growers of tomatoes and in each they interested me.

The first was a company that was established over 40 years ago and is a supplier of one of the major supermarket chains in uk. I was fascinated by their ecological record , and the innovation they have pushed forward on with regard to sustainable farming and ecology. The range of produce was tuned for the mass market but the interesting thing was the use of CO2, recycling and ecology. Fascinating to see their studies of birds and bees and insects.

http://www.ericwallnursery.co.uk/

The second was a company that marketed heirloom varieties for the select market, but also had schemes for selling boxes of varieties on a regular basis to individual homeowners. What a great idea, and introducing many people to the taste of many different type of tomatoes. I noticed that they also distributed to local businesses. Anything that opens up the very diverse world of tomatoes sounded good to me. I also liked the touch that they review the varieties for subsequent years. Long live variety!

https://www.thetomatostall.co.uk/

The final one, was a grower in iceland. The innovation of using the unique environment of iceland's geothermal energy to produce what we think of as a sun crop was amazing. A 25 year project and commercial business. Clearly a passion as well as a livelyhood

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/farms-in-iceland

Hats off to all of them in lots of different ways.

As i say I am not promoting them, it was just interesting to see 3 different approaches.

But here is the quiz. Can you guess which one of these I have visited in person ? Geographical knowledge may help, or it may not

Sean

I'm going to guess you've been to the tomatostall, and tasted a bunch of delish tomatoes (maybe even scooped a few seeds).

Tomatostall because it is close to where you live.

Unfortunately, the tomato stall is not open to the public. It certainly is one I'd like to visit due to the varieties grown. Perhaps when the covid is over I'd sure like swing by for a tasting

so actually, it was iceland and a business run by knuter. I saw the barnham greenshouses as i passed by in a train to brighton and was amazed at how large the tomato plants were but never actually visited. But what i found really interesting was the use of geothermal energy to create the environment when all was dark in february and yet there were really delicious ripe tomatoes. And as for the icelandic ponies (which i think knuter was very proud of) and their five gaits that was really interesting

Oh and as an aside, the pedigree of the horses and the maintaining of the purity - hey i love the heirloom approach!

Iceland was my first guess should have stuck with it