Maker · Vegetables
Harvest House: Dutch flavour tomato at scale
Not a single grower, but a growers' collective of over sixty Dutch glasshouse operators. This means for your kitchen: the same flavour tomato, week in week out, from the Dutch greenhouse instead of from a truck from far away.
The story
Who's behind it
Harvest House is not a farm but a growers' collective: a cooperative where over sixty Dutch glasshouse operators have come together. In the latest count that's 62 growers. They grow fruiting vegetables, with tomato as the core of the range. For you as a chef that's the difference between relying on a single grower who can disappear and working with an organisation that pools the volume and continuity of dozens of businesses under a single quality standard. You order from Jimmy Loves Food, but behind that one line on your order sits a network delivering through the whole season. That makes planning simpler: you can put a tomato dish on the menu and trust the fruit will arrive as good in March as in August.
What makes it different
Two things. The first is flavour selection. The Pearls of Taste line consists of six truss tomato types selected for flavour and sugar content, not shelf life or transport ease. You taste that back in a tomato that can sit on your menu unadorned.
The second is scaled sustainability. Of the area 55 per cent runs on non-fossil heat—think geothermal and waste heat instead of gas-fired greenhouses. There's also a separate organic growing line. For you that means a Dutch greenhouse tomato with a lower footprint than gas-heated production or something shipped from far away, without compromising on flavour or supply certainty.
How to stand out with this
Put the source on the menu. Dutch greenhouse, growers' collective, grown on non-fossil heat: these are concrete points where an anonymous import tomato falls short. Use these tomatoes precisely in dishes where the tomato is the lead and doesn't disappear into a sauce full of other flavours. A salad of pure cherry truss tomato, a cold tomato soup, a spread of preserved truss tomatoes: dishes that rise or fall with fruit quality. Tell your guest in one sentence where the tomato comes from. That story is true, it's straightforward to deliver, and it justifies the place on your menu and your bill. If you work with season you can also move with the line: the sweetest types in summer for raw uses, the sturdier truss tomato in cooler months for oven and pan.
Chef’s tip
Store these tomatoes at room temperature, not chilled below 12 degrees. Cold suppresses aroma and makes the flesh mealy. When ordering, ask for the current Pearls of Taste type: the line shifts with each harvest and the sweetest types come in summer.
How to use it
Ideas for your menu
Tomato salad pure
Cherry truss tomato, good olive oil, sea salt, basil. Let the sugar content do the work and add little else.
Preserved truss tomato
Slow in the oven with thyme and garlic. Concentrates flavour for pasta, on toast or alongside grilled meat.
Cold tomato soup
Ripe truss tomatoes with minimal additions. Only works if the base is grown with flavour in mind, and that's the case here.
Charred cherry tomato
Halved cherry plum tomato quick under the salamander, alongside fish or lamb. Warm, sweet and sour in one bite.
For your menu
“Cherry truss tomato from Pearls of Taste (Harvest House, Dutch greenhouse)”
Products from Harvest House
What we carry from this maker
Cherry truss tomatoes, Pearls of Taste
Small truss tomato with high sugar content, the flavour flagship of Harvest House. Standard in the JLF range.
Cherry plum tomatoes
Elongated mini type within the Pearls of Taste line. Firm bite, intensely sweet.
Flavour tomatoes by season
Shifting with each harvest. Ask for the current Pearls of Taste types.
Prices and availability are in the portal. Not a customer yet? Become a customer or log in to order.
Taste it in your own kitchen
Book a no-obligation tasting with Niels. No contract, just tasting.