Consumers can, even with weather and temperatures that feel more like November, get the feeling of summer on their plate with freshly harvest tomatoes from the German Rhineland. Since March the tomato producers have been harvesting tomatoes from their greenhouses, according to the Provincial Association fruit and vegetable farmers of Rhineland in Bonn.
Tomatoes are the most important crop in the greenhouses in the Rhineland. All sorts of tomatoes are cultivated, cherry, plum and round tomatoes or tomatoes on the vine. This variety attracts large hordes of the tomato lovers. But not all the tomatoes are red; there are yellow and green varieties. And the varieties of tomatoes aren’t just visually different, but they taste different too. Some are sweeter, other are a bit more tart, some are firm some are soft. There is a tomato to suit every taste.
Until December consumers can enjoy fresh tomatoes. The cultivation in greenhouses hugely extended the tomato season. Because the first open field tomatoes are ripe in July and depending on the weather, the last open field tomatoes are harvested early October. Greenhouse cultivation has more advantages; the tomatoes are protected against rain so there is no need to use antifungal products. And pests can be controlled with beneficial organisms.
So tomato lovers can look forward to the coming months.