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  • From: "TradingPostPaul" <tradingpost@riseup.net>
  • To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [Livingontheland] TOMATOES - HEIRLOOM
  • Date: Wed, 06 Jun 2007 13:10:41 -0600


Just interesting.


TOMATOES - HEIRLOOM
Published: 23 July 2003
http://www.jjdst.com/category_mgmt.cfm?product_id=heirloom_tomatoes

Tomato History:
Tomatoes are technically a fruit. When the US passed the Tariff Act of 1883
- imposing a 10% tax on imported vegetables - a tomato importer challenged
the Act maintaining that tomatoes should be exempt from the tax. John Nix's
challenge went as far as the US Supreme Court, but was rejected by Justice
Gray who wrote: "Botanically speaking, tomatoes are fruits of a vine, just
as are cucumbers, squashes, beans, and peas. But in the common language of
the people .... all these are vegetables, which are grown in kitchen
gardens, and which, whether eaten cooked or raw, are, like potatoes,
carrots, parsnips, turnips, beets, cauliflower, cabbage, celery and
lettuce, usually served at dinner in, with or after the soup .... and not,
like fruits generally, as dessert."

Today, a few species of tomatoes grow wild in Peru - in the Andes Mountains
- the area along the western coast of South America is thought to be where
the first tomatoes originated. The tomato has a very colorful history -
originating in one hemisphere, becoming popular in another, returning home
for intensive breeding that eventually produced todays popular tomatoes.
Lycopersicon exculentum is distributed worldwide today, and is a culinary
delight!

The wild ancestor of the tomato traveled north from Peru several thousand
years before the Spanish began their exploration of Central America in the
16th Century. Evidence that the tomato was domesticated in Central America
goes back to the Pre-Columbian cultures in Peru where textiles and pottery
were decorated with crops important to them. Aztec writings in Central
America mentioned dishes that included peppers, salt and tomato - perhaps
the original salsa recipe? The earliest European literature is found in an
herbal written by Matthiolus in 1544 - pomi d'oro (golden apple) as a
tomato is described in Italy, which supports evidence that the first
tomatoes to reach the Old World were a yellow variety which came from the
Mediterranean area. It is recorded that the red tomato variety reached
Italy via Catholic priests many years after the yellow variety, and that
the fruit had very rough skin, unlike todays smooth-skinned varieties.

By 1781, Thomas Jefferson brought tomatoes to his table at his beautiful
mountain home Monticello. From this point on, although there were many
bumps in the road for the tomato, the western world began to accept this
bountiful fruit.

Tomato plants are self-pollinating plants, and become genetically
homozygous after a few generations. Tomatoes do not naturally outcross
often, and if they do, the seeds will produce plants that are similar to
the parents. Because early cultivars did not change much, and were kept in
a local area for a long time, they have become known today as heirloom
tomatoes.

Heirloom tomatoes date back hundreds of years, and are becoming the most
popular of all tomatoes due to their fabulous flavor - low acid and high
acid fruit - colors, shapes and culinary applications. Heirloom tomatoes
are available in black, dark purple, green striped, yellow and green
striped, red, orange, yellow, green, red and black, colors of the rainbow.
The shapes of heirloom tomatoes are wide- ranging - like peppers, small
like cherries, some weighing in at 5+ pounds, rough-edged, smooth skin,
oval, round - and quite visually appealing.

Heirloom tomatoes have names that reflect some of the history - Polish
(smuggled into the US on the back of a postage stamp!), Soldacki (arrived
in the US from Polish immigrants who settled in Ohio), First Pick (from
France), Picardy (1890 in France), Besser and Schellenburg's Favorite (from
Germany). The Amish Paste heirloom tomato has been cultivated in
Pennsylvania since the 1870's! Elbe, Brandywine, Hillbilly, Old Virginia,
Jeff Davis (a very old cultivar that honored the Confederacy's only
president, and came from Alabama!), Campbell Soup Company's Ace is still
being used for soups today, Hopkins (grows at Edgar Allan Poe's estate in
Pennsylvania and is his mother's maiden name), Broad Ripple Yellow Currant,
1884. The stories of the heirloom tomatoes are as varied as the immigrants
who carried their seeds to America in hollow canes and waistbands, or the
Mortgage Lifter variety that was developed by Charlie from West Virginia
during the Great Depression. Charlie owned a radiator repair shop, fell on
difficult times as people abandoned their cars, used four plants that
produced the largest tomatoes, crossed them over and over again to create a
plant that produced two pound tomatoes. Charlie sold his plants for $1 each
and maintained that one plant would feed a family of six. Within four
years, this gentleman from West Virginia made enough money with his
Mortgage Lifter tomato to pay off the $6,000 mortgage on his home!

To be considered an heirloom tomato:
# Variety must have been grown for at least 50 years
# Variety must be stable and able to reproduce itself
# Variety has a known history regarding area of origin, people who used the
tomato or outstanding qualities

>From the Brandywine, Banana, Cherokee Purple (high acid and terrific on a
white pizza with walnuts and chevre), Black Krim, Orange Strawberry,
Burgess Stuffing, Yellow Stuffing, Yellow Pear, Red Pear, Green Grape,
Chiapas, and the many varieties mentioned above, it is that time of the
year for the beautiful heirloom tomatoes.

Enjoy!






  • [Livingontheland] TOMATOES - HEIRLOOM, TradingPostPaul, 06/06/2007

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