We are BIG ‘dip, dip’ fans in our house! We do know it’s called ketchup but Florence has always called it ‘dip, dip’ so now we do too… Jonny eats ketchup with practically everything bar a roast dinner and Florence has totally followed suit. Jimmy has just had his first taste yesterday and guess what? He seems pretty smitten too!

Tomatoes contain lycopene which offers many heath benefits. Strangely, after processing, the lycopene is more easily absorbed into the body, so eating tomatoes for the lycopene benefits is actually far better for you if eating ketchup than if you were to just eat the raw fruit! I was googling and found that information on a health benefits website! Obviously I would say everything in moderation is a good philosophy but that’s very interesting to know!

Heinz ketchup has got to be the most famous of all the ketchup brands! It was over 130 years ago that HJ Heinz added it to his line of pickles and I don’t think the world has looked back when choosing red sauce since. Just as we think of Hoover when using other vacuumes and Sellotape for all sticky tapes I think we automatically think of Heinz when eating ketchup. I can ALWAYS tell when it’s not the right brand though!

Heinz are super strict on the rules for the perfect bottle of the red stuff even down to the speed it comes out of the bottle! If, during manufacturing, it pours unaided at more than 0.028mph it’s rejected! They’re picky then and when it comes to picking which tomatoes to use in their sauce they’re pretty choosy there too! There are over 10,000 varieties in exsistence, from tiny tomberries (Florence loves these) to the Ponderosa variety, which weighs over 3lb! Heinz however, uses it’s very own varieties of traditionally bred tomatoes for it’s famous ketchup.

You cant’t beat Heinz ketchup!

Heinz grow their own and this year they are encouraging families to join them and share the tomoato growing experience! Heinz have invited me specifically to get involved and to encourange my readers to do the same. With little children what could be more fun than planting something, watching it grow and then having something to eat at the end of it! How exciting!

We’ve been sent everything we need to get started but you too can get some FREE tomato seeds from Heinz, as well as some brilliant tips and tricks, by visiting the Heinz Facebook page. You can get totally involved just as we have, share your pictures for the Greenhouse Photo Gallery, Attend the Tomato School, play the Tomato Game and read all about how Heinz grow theirs, as well of course, as applying for your seeds!

Florence was very pleased with the new Heinz gardening equipment and immediately filled up her wheelbarrow!

Even though it’s snowing right now… We decided that as our little seedlings will be indoors for the first part of their growing journey, we would plant them now and keep our fingers crossed! We waited for a spot of sunshine in between the snow showers and went outside for the messy bit! Gardening is fun! Who knew?

We waited for it to stop snowing!

And then we got planting! We did two pots, the Heinz one and a bucket that one of Florence’s Easter eggs came in!

We can’t wait to see the fruits of our labour and will keep you updated on our very own tomato growing journey! Ultimately, we hope we have some lovely tomato plants to put in bigger pots and stand in a gorgeous old-fashioned fruit box before they are finally ready for us to eat! Hopefully we shall have enough for a salad and perhaps even enough to bottle and make our own chutney? I’ll defnitely keep you posted!

Here they are on my Mum’s kitchen window sill. They need to grow a little before we can move each seedling into it’s own pot. We will take them home with us to London like this and bring them back when they are ready to be moved!

I was not paid to write this post but I have been offered an incentive to enter the ‘Heinz Grown Your Own Initiative’. The incentive is a hamper of goodies if I keep updating you on our own growing journey. I have to say though, for this challenge, there is no incentive needed as we are more than happy to grow our own tomatoes and blog about it, but it’s jolly nice of them so we thought we’d let you know!