Yesterday, :jessilu: and I were looking at our history outline book and came upon the fact that the tomato was introduced to Europeans in the 1600s. I remembered some facts about the tomato, that I learned when I was in the FFA (Future Farmers of America) when I was a teen.
1. The tomato was grown in central America and then moved up to Mexico, where it was introduced to Europeans in the mid 1600s.
2. The tomato was used as a food by southern europeans while northern europeans believed that it was poisonous because the plant was from the same family as nightshade. Also, those who did get sick from eating tomatos tended to be rich. In that time period, the rich used lead plates. The acid from the tomato drew the lead out, causing the person to die from lead poisoning. The poor didn't get sick from them because, if they used plates at all, they used wooden plates.
3. The tomato became really popular with the invention of the pizza in the 1880s in Naples, Italy. The story goes that a restrauteur wanted to celebrate the visit of Queen Margeurite. So, he made a food with the colors of the new Italian flag: red (tomato sauce), white (mozzerella cheese), and green (basil).
4. The tomato was not considered a kitchen vegetable until right before the Civil War period in the US. Needless to say, popularity has blossomed since then for the tomato.
5. Fruit or vegetable?
By definition, a fruit is the edible plant structure of a mature ovary of a flowering plant, usually eaten raw; some are sweet like apples, but the ones that are not sweet such as tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, etc. are commonly called vegetables. Botanists claim that a fruit is any fleshy material that covers a seed or seeds where as a horticulturists point of view would pose that the tomato is a vegetable plant. Until the late 1800's the tomato was classified as a fruit to avoid taxation, but this was changed after a Supreme Court ruling that the tomato is a vegetable and should be taxed accordingly.
Needless to say, the tomato has had a very interesting history. The tomato has been classified as a poisonous beautiful plant, a tax-avoiding fruit, and a taxable vegetable. Nonetheless, the tomato is the most popular vegetable in America and enjoyed by millions all over the world.
1. The tomato was grown in central America and then moved up to Mexico, where it was introduced to Europeans in the mid 1600s.
2. The tomato was used as a food by southern europeans while northern europeans believed that it was poisonous because the plant was from the same family as nightshade. Also, those who did get sick from eating tomatos tended to be rich. In that time period, the rich used lead plates. The acid from the tomato drew the lead out, causing the person to die from lead poisoning. The poor didn't get sick from them because, if they used plates at all, they used wooden plates.
3. The tomato became really popular with the invention of the pizza in the 1880s in Naples, Italy. The story goes that a restrauteur wanted to celebrate the visit of Queen Margeurite. So, he made a food with the colors of the new Italian flag: red (tomato sauce), white (mozzerella cheese), and green (basil).
4. The tomato was not considered a kitchen vegetable until right before the Civil War period in the US. Needless to say, popularity has blossomed since then for the tomato.
5. Fruit or vegetable?
By definition, a fruit is the edible plant structure of a mature ovary of a flowering plant, usually eaten raw; some are sweet like apples, but the ones that are not sweet such as tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, etc. are commonly called vegetables. Botanists claim that a fruit is any fleshy material that covers a seed or seeds where as a horticulturists point of view would pose that the tomato is a vegetable plant. Until the late 1800's the tomato was classified as a fruit to avoid taxation, but this was changed after a Supreme Court ruling that the tomato is a vegetable and should be taxed accordingly.
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Needless to say, the tomato has had a very interesting history. The tomato has been classified as a poisonous beautiful plant, a tax-avoiding fruit, and a taxable vegetable. Nonetheless, the tomato is the most popular vegetable in America and enjoyed by millions all over the world.
