A ROCHFORD mum has beaten hundreds of other entrants to have her home grown tomatoes turned into a bottle of tomato ketchup.

Claire Pack, 43, won the annual Heinz Tomato Ketchup Grow Your Own competition.

The food manufacturing company was impressed with the creative way she took the photos of the fruit growing.

Claire was helped in growing the tomatoes by her children, seven-year-old Freya and Charlie, two.

She said: “I saw the competition on Facebook and decided to enter.

“We had been growing tomatoes in plastic containers along the fence and I sent in photos of them to the competition.

“We have an area of the garden where my children grow vegetables but decided to plant the tomatoes in containers to give us more room for everything else.

“This year we grew lemon cucumbers to find out whether they tasted like lemons or just looked like them.

“It is really good to encourage people to grow veg.”

The seeds for the tomatoes were planted by Charlie.

The children grow lots of different types of vegetables, including peas and other types that they like to eat.

She was chosen from entries submitted by families from up and down the country after growing her sun ripened Heinz tomatoes in her garden.

The tomatoes were picked and then transported to the Heinz Innovation Centre where they were made into a personalised bottle of Heinz Tomato Ketchup.

Claire said: “I was really surprised to have won the competition.

“I am thrilled.

“We haven’t opened our bottle yet.

“We already have one open so instead of opening two we are going to have to wait until we have had more of the first one.

“Although we will leave a bit so we can compare it to the one that was made from our tomatoes.

“I’m a huge fan of Heinz Tomato Ketchup and can’t wait for the whole family to sit down to dinner and enjoy our own home-grown tomatoes bottled up as part of the meal.

“It was so much fun getting out into the garden, planting the seeds, watching the tomatoes grow and now having them in our own bottle.

“We have definitely been inspired to keep growing vegetables.”

The competition asked families to upload pictures of their tomato-growing efforts to the official Heinz UK Facebook page to be in with a chance of being that one lucky winner.

There have also been a number of prizes won during the initial growing phase of the campaign, with gardening hopefuls winning gardening tools, such as watering cans, wheelbarrows, trowels and gardening gloves.

Chris Isaac, brand manager for Heinz Tomato Ketchup said: “It’s been a really successful competition and we’ve loved seeing all the pictures of our fans getting out into the garden and planting their seeds.

“We’re so pleased for our winner Claire and hope her family all enjoy the fruits of their labour.”

The Heinz Tomato Ketchup Grow Your Own campaign will kick off again in March 2017 online at: facebook.com/HeinzUK