This may not sound like a big deal to you, but it is a bit of an issue in our house.

My children will eat foods made with passata, tomato purée and blended tomatoes (they will even lick tomato purée off a spoon!)

However they will not eat anything that contains any actual pieces or bits of tomato. Even if I make a gorgeous veggie lasagne and the odd tomato chunk has escaped my blender’s best efforts, they will pick it out and put it to one side with the maximum of fuss. If I dish up some salad and it has a rogue tomato pip on it they will refuse to eat that too. They will not under any circumstances eat actual tomatoes.

In an attempt to prove to my husband that I am not as dismal a gardener as he thinks (to be fair, his opinion is based on historic evidence), I have been growing three cherry tomato plants in pots in our garden this year. Two of them have actually produced fruit and they taste absolutely wonderful. I always scoffed at those people who kept saying how you can really taste the difference in home grown produce and they make the shop bought ones seem so flavourless, but I have to admit they could be right.

My children have been very interested in watching the tomatoes grow, but that is as far as it went. However the other day I had picked a few and was saying how delicious they were compared to the ordinary ones in the fridge that we’d bought at the supermarket, and my one son actually asked if he could taste one.

After I’d recovered from the shock I gave him one to try and he ACTUALLY ATE IT! I will admit that he didn’t rave about it, immediately had a glass of water to remove the taste and said he didn’t want another, but still, he ate it.

He says that he would prefer not to have one in future, but that if he has to have one he can live with it. He even told his brother this. Progress indeed.

Next year I think I’ll grow courgettes…