OK I'm finally ready to admit that summer is well and truly over. Yes, I know it’s November and that the clocks have gone back but I wasn’t quite ready to wave summer goodbye and that was down to one thing: I was still able to buy locally-grown cherry tomatoes from one of our suppliers. But now we’ve been told this is the last week we’ll have them in stock and I’m gutted. Their sweet, tangy taste has played such a big part of my diet for the last few months.

I adore tomatoes, if I grow one thing every year it's them, because there really is nothing more satisfying than eating them straight off the vine. Unfortunately my own plant bore just one fruit this year, so I was delighted when Cultivate received their first delivery of local tomatoes a few months ago. I used to convince myself the ‘heritage varieties’ at the supermarket would come close to home-grown ones, but tasting local tomatoes when they were in season reminded me I was wasting my money and my tastebuds on anything else.

Actually, researchers at The University of Florida have now discovered the reason why those supermarket varieties will never taste the same: it’s all to do with refrigeration. Obviously, supermarkets need to refrigerate their food as it helps keep things freshers for longer, something key when you need to transport it vast distances. But in the case of tomatoes, refrigeration also causes irreversible genetic changes that erase some of their flavours forever. This means that we shouldn’t be storing them in the fridge at home either. A shady spot on the kitchen counter should be fine.

It might mean you sacrifice a couple days of shelf life but you get ten times more flavour. And what’s the point in eating something you’re not going to enjoy the taste of? I’m so sold on the flavour of local tomatoes I’m vowing to only buy fresh ones when in they’re in season. And in the winter? Well, I’m now on the hunt for the perfect tomato chutney recipe.