BUMPER HARVEST

Once you've tasted home-grown heirlooms, you'll never buy tomatoes from the supermarket again!

Don't settle for simply red-you can grow tomatoes with skins that are yellow or green, even streaked. And shape doesn't matter either. Those that bulge certainly have a life - and taste - all of their own!

Pick a fresh, ripe, homegrown tomato today, and there will be lots left on the vine tomorrow, and the next day and the next...

They're called love apples and for a very good reason.

Fresh heirloom tomatoes, plucked straight from your vine, will spin you out with their sensational taste, texture, and colours. You can get varieties that are ideal for salads, sandwiches, sauces, roasting, drying or just for eating fresh from the garden. With these growing in your veggie plot or a garden pot, one plant will crop for up to four months - imagine how much money you'll save!

COMMERCIAL VERSUS HEIRLOOM TOMATOES

Commercial tomatoes are bred to have uniform shape, colour and ripening periods, and their skins are tougher for better storage and longer shelf life. What's sacrificed is flavour. Heirloom tomatoes, on the other hand, have been planted and replanted by generations of gardeners because of their unique tastes, textures, shapes and colours.

They're the hidden gems of the tomato world!

TRY THESE TYPES

BIG RAINBOW

A large beefsteak tomato up to 10cm in diameter with a streaky red, orange and yellow skin, it opens up to reveal rainbow slices of yellow, pink and red. Its mild, sweet flavour is ideal for salads or a platter.

HUNGARIAN HEART

This big, round, so-called 'oxheart' because of its size and shape - can produce pink tomatoes that weigh up to 500g and have few seeds and lots of flesh that has a delicate taste. Great for sauces, preserving or eating fresh.

ANANAS NOIRE