Around here, everyone knows them: The honey tomatoes of Looye Growers. These cherry tomatoes have an amazing taste and are called the best tasting tomatoes available. Looye Growers' slogan is not without reason: 'Tasting is believing'. Once you have tasted the honey tomato you will know why. Of course we were curious about how to grow such an incredibly delicious tomato. So we visited them!
Every plant begins as a seed. Looye Growers receives Exclusive seeds for their honey tomatoes, these come from France. Once arrived in the Netherlands, they are taken to Looye's greenhouses. Looye has several greenhouses where they grow the small plants up into mature tomato plants. With the help of special nutrition and a good substrate (rock wool mats made of volcanic rock) the plants develop quickly. The adult plants can easily reach 5 meters in length. To keep the plant as safe as possible during the growing process, visitors must wear special clothing and disinfect themselves. This way they try to reduce the risk of disease and viruses. Tests are constantly conducted to monitor certain values.
Selecting the tomatoes in the greenhouse
Not every tomato will become a honey tomato. This would be an ideal situation but that's not realistic. You can assume that only 20% of the total crop ends up as a Looye Honey tomato. And only 7% is good enough to end up in a 3kg vine box. This already indicates how strict the selection is for these tomatoes.
The first selection begins in the greenhouse. The experienced employees pick out the beautiful vines. The tomatoes are not cut until they are completely red in color and therefore full of flavor. The tomatoes then go through the next selection in the warehouse.
Selecting tomatoes outside the greenhouse
The preselected tomatoes from all the other greenhouses are collected in 1 warehouse, where the tomatoes are assessed one more time. This involves visual inspection, but also a special machine that takes photos and other measurements. This allows Looye Growers to make a good estimation of the number of Honey tomatoes they have ready for that day.
But what really matters is the taste, and this cannot be judged by eye or by a machine. That's why Looye Growers conduct taste tests every day. Through blind tasting, the quality of the tomatoes is measured once more. The tomatoes from the different greenhouses are also tested here. It's possible that there is a difference in taste between the various greenhouses.
Then it is time for packaging, where the final visual inspection takes place. The tomatoes literally go through the hands of the staff which picks out the best tomatoes and packs them under the Honey Tomatoes label!
Can you believe it?
In the video we also show the process of the Looye Honey tomatoes. In the end there is only 1 option to really convince you; taste these supertomatoes yourself! Only then will you believe that this tomato is indeed one of the tastiest tomatoes you can find!
If you have any remaining questions regarding the Honey Tomatoes, don't hestitate to contact me! Eric Groenheide, via Dit e-mailadres wordt beveiligd tegen spambots. JavaScript dient ingeschakeld te zijn om het te bekijken. and I will help you!