“You say tomāto and I say tomăto” -- George and Ira Gershwin
You say vegetable, and I say fruit. This argument pits botany against the Supreme Court. Botanically, the tomato is the seed-bearing, ripened ovary of a flower – the definition of a fruit. In 1887, the United States tariff laws imposed a ten percent duty on imported vegetables and none on fruit. John Nix, a tomato importer, sued the tax collector of the port of New York, claiming that tomatoes are technically fruit and therefore exempt from tariffs. His case was eventually brought before the Supreme Court, which decided in 1893 that the tomato is a vegetable, not a fruit. An early case of government denial of scientific fact influenced by money.
Our present-day tomato, Solanum lycopersicum, has a convoluted history, with origins in the Andes Mountains, importation to Europe, and a return to the Western Hemisphere. Along the way there were many doubts and fears concerning its desirability as a food.
The wild ancestor of our tomatoes, Solanum pimpinellifolium, still grows in the mountains of Peru and Ecuador, but its habitat is shrinking due to industrial agriculture. The small, pea-sized fruit called “tomatillos silvestres” or “little wild tomatoes” are still appreciated and eaten as a foraged food.
By 700 A.D., these plants were brought north, cultivated, and improved by the Aztec. In their Nahuatl language, the fruit wascalled ‘’xltomatl’’ or ‘’plump fruit with a navel.” The seeds were considered aphrodisiacs and tomatoes were given as gifts to young couples to increase their fertility.
The Spanish conquistador, Hernan Cortes, brought tomato seeds to Europe in 1519 to be grown as ornamental plants. The tomato’s history as an edible is complicated. It was consideredan inappropriate food for Northern Europeans, poisonous, and an aphrodisiac that could lead to temptation.
The plant family, Solanum, is often referred to as the nightshade family, and contains many plants that are poisonous, such as deadly nightshade, Solanum lethale. The tomato’s familial associations scared many. Some aristocrats became ill and even died when the acidic tomatoes leached the lead from their pewter plates. John Parkinson, apothecary and botanist to British kings, decided that tomatoes were only to be eaten by people in hot countries to “coole and quenche the heate and thirst of the hot stomaches.”
In German folklore, werewolves could be lured by using plants of the nightshade family. The early tomatoes grew in the shape of a peach and produced a similar juice. These two factors led to a Latin name of Lycopersicon esculentum, or “edible wolfpeach” for the tomato plant. Its present appellation, Solanum lycopersicum, still reflects the references to peaches (persicum) and wolves (lyco). In 1544, Petri Matthioli, a German herbalist, called a yellow tomato “mala aurea” or “golden apple,” which was translated into Italian as “pomi d’oro” and misinterpreted by a Flemish herbalist as “pomme d’amour,” the “love apple.” A return to the aphrodisiac.
Andrew Smith, author of The Tomato in America, recounts numerous stories about the reintroduction of the tomato to the Western Hemisphere. The Spanish brought seeds to Florida and the Carolinas. Italian immigrants also carried seeds with them. Many early uses were medicinal, and evolved to culinary. Though myths endured, such as the belief that blood turned to acid if a tomato was eaten.
Thomas Jefferson returned from France with tomato seeds, which he grew in his garden at Monticello. His daughters and granddaughters pickled tomatoes and added them to gumbo. By 1806, the Gardener’s Calendar stated that the tomato was “much cultivated for its fruit, in soups and sauces…and is also stewed and dressed in various ways, and very much admired.” By the 1880’s tomato seeds were offered in catalogs.
Joseph Campbell and his company introduced mass market canned tomato soup in 1895, and two years later offered a condensed version. The tomato is the state vegetable of New Jersey, and the state fruit and state vegetable of Arkansas.
Today, 1.5 billion tons of tomatoes are produced commercially worldwide, and it is the most popular produce grown in our home gardens. One factor to notice when choosing from the fifteen-thousand varieties of tomatoes to grow is whether they are determinate or indeterminate. Determinate plants have been developed so that the fruit ripens on short bushy plants all at once, usually within weeks. Indeterminate tomatoes are vine-like perennial plants and will grow until killed by frost. Tomato cages are useless to contain these indeterminate plants, which can grow to twelve feet in a season.
In January, it is time to dream about the next season in the garden. Eat some of your preserved tomatoes from last summer; avoid buying the tasteless imported tomatoes offered in supermarkets; remember those love apples, those wolf peaches, those xltomatls, warm from the August sun with juice dripping down your chin.
January 2019
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