FAQ

A collection of canned tomato paste might be a bit surprising. To most visitors it causes two reactions; Amazement that soo many different cans of tomato paste exist and disbelief that someone is actually collecting these cans. Please allow me to explain it to you with some questions and answers:

1. Are these only pictures, or do you really have those cans?

It's a real collection of real cans. In section Display you can see a substantial amount of cans in display.

2. Are the cans full or empty?

Nearly all cans are empty now. Initially I tried to keep full cans. This went fine for some years, but when tomato paste stays in the can for a really long time, the result can be dramatic. The can slowly corrodes from the inside and the contents can start leaking out. Another risk is gas formation inside the can and the resulting pressure rise might deform the can or even explode it. Fortunately I never had explosions, but I did have some leakages and deformed cans. An interesting fact is that some cans already start leaking before the 'best-before' date is expired. So I decided that it is better to empty all cans.

3. Why a collection of canned tomato paste?

Just by coincidence. Cleaning up my kitchen once, a long time ago, I discovered that I had three or four different brands of canned tomato paste. And it actually were nice-looking cans. Instead of putting them back in the cupboard, I decided to put them on a shelf for decoration. Shortly afterwards I noticed again different cans in a supermarket. I guess that at that moment I started to collect.

4. Have you eaten all tomate paste from these cans?

No. I've thrown away almost all of it. Yeah, I know that's a waste of food. Sorry.

5. Do you have a special interest in tomate paste?

No. I don't particulary like or dislike tomato paste, nor do I eat much of it. It's just the cans that have my special attention.

6. How many cans do you have?

I´ve about 200 cans listed in a file. But that´s a rather old and outdated file. Several more cans are waiting in a box to be officially added to the collection. My best guess is a total of about 230 cans.

7. Are there other tomato paste can collectors?

Most probably yes. At least some years ago, before the long Tomato Page coma, I´ve been in contact with a colleague collector in Germany.

8. what happened in the recent years? Why wasn´t The Tomato Page updated for such a long time?

In 2004 I moved into another house. I stuffed the cans in a big box and started to spend my free time to home renovation. This took quite some more years than foreseen. In the same period the server that hosted my gallery broke down. I couldn't find the time and courage to repair both the house and the website. The house won and The Tomato Page softly went into some sort of coma.