[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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