[Homestead] More tomato history was: Bread oven
eureka at hctc.net
eureka at hctc.net
Mon Oct 27 16:46:51 EDT 2008
Fascinating World Of The Nightshades by Charles Bixler
Heiser, Jr. is a great read on the subject.--Sage
On Mon, 27 Oct 2008 16:29:30 -0400
"Don Bowen" <don.bowen at earthlink.net> wrote:
>> People (Europeans) in medieval times never saw a tomato
>>to decide
>> whether it was poisonous or not. Tomatoes are native to
>>America.
>
>>From the below it looks like the Tomato did not enter
>>Europe until after
> 1521. The first cook book mention was in 1692. The
>Tomato plant looks like
> the nightshade plant and the resemblance scared many
>away from this
> delectable berry.
>
> http://lamar.colostate.edu/~samcox/Tomato.html
>
> "The Spanish explorer Cortez conquered the Aztec city of
>Tenochtitlan, later
> to be renamed Mexico City, in 1521. It is presumed that
>the tomato found
> its' way across the Atlantic shortly after. The earliest
>mention of the
> tomato in European literature is found in an herbal
>written by Matthiolus in
> 1544 [3]. He described tomatoes, or as they were called
>in Italy, pomi d'oro
> (golden apple), and wrote that they were "eaten in Italy
>with oil, salt and
> pepper". This provides evidence that the first tomatoes
>to reach the Old
> World were a yellow variety, and that they were
>introduced via the
> Mediterranean. Red tomatoes were said to be introduced
>to Italy by two
> Catholic priests many years later [9]. Although not
>specifically documented,
> early tomatoes were probably small fruited, since they
>most likely were of
> the small-fruited cerasiforme variety cultivated by the
>Aztecs.
> Additionally, later emphasis on breeding for
>smooth-skinned cultivars [3]
> suggests that early cultivars had a rough skin."
>
> "Undoubtedly it was initially received in Spain, and the
>name pome dei Moro
> (Moor's apple), was probably among the first [1].
>Cultivation of perhaps
> several varieties became widespread in the ensuing
>decades in Spain, Italy,
> and in France, where it was called pomme d'amour (love
>apple) [9], perhaps
> because of suspected aphrodisiac properties, but more
>likely the result of a
> corruption of the early Spanish name, pome dei Moro.
>Although used in a
> limited manner as a food in Mediterranean countries,
>northern European
> countries regarded the tomato as a curiosity for over a
>century [6]. English
> authors referred to the tomato as a horticultural
>ornamental as early as
> 1578 [3]. One such English cultivator wrote in 1596,
>"these love apples are
> eaten abroad", but went on to describe them "of rank and
>stinking savour"
> [1]. By 1623, four types of tomatoes were known: red,
>yellow, orange and
> golden [3], with the distinction between yellow and
>golden perhaps only in
> the mind of different authors. The first cookbook to
>mention tomatoes was
> published in Naples in 1692 [1]. By 1700, seven types
>are mentioned in one
> article, including a large red type [3]. In 1752,
>English cooks used
> tomatoes sparingly in the flavoring of soups [1]. In
>1758, a tomato recipe
> allegedly showed up in the popular British cookbook, The
>Art of Cookery by
> Hannah Glass [1]. Earliest records of marketing tomatoes
>are from the early
> 1800's in Europe [3]."
>
> "The introduction of the tomato did not proceed
>peacefully in all areas of
> Europe. Northern cultures associated the tomato plant
>with poisonous members
> of the Solanceae family, specifically henbane, mandrake
>and deadly
> nightshade, which bore morphological resemblance. Deadly
>nightshade, Atropus
> belladonna, in particular bears good resemblance to a
>tomato plant (Fig 3).
> It is a poisonous plant which has been used as both a
>hallucinogenic drug
> and a beauty aid in different parts of Europe. The Latin
>name "belladonna"
> literally means beautiful woman, in reference to the
>practice of ladies in
> medieval courts who would apply a few drops of
>nightshade extract to their
> eyes to dilate their pupils, a look considered most
>fashionable at the time.
> The hallucinogenic properties of the plant, comprised of
>visions and the
> sense of flying, most likely led to the association of
>nightshade with
> witchcraft. Old German folklore has it that witches used
>plants of the
> nightshade family to evoke werewolves, a practice known
>as lycanthropy (Fig
> 4). The common German name for tomatoes translates to
>"wolf peach", and was
> avoided for obvious reasons. In the 18th century Carl
>Linnaeus conjured up
> binomial nomenclature to name species, and took note of
>this legend when he
> named the tomato Lycopersicon esculentum, which
>literally means, "edible
> wolf peach" [1]."
>
> Don Bowen KI6DIU
> http://www.braingarage.com/Dons/Travels/journal/Journal.html
>
>
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