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The Story Of The Tomato
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It was called the “golden apple”. It was even thought to be
a kind of eggplant, of which it is a relative. Earlier than
that, it was looked upon with suspicion and fear, because it
is related to some poisonous plants. And today, it is one of
the main ingredients in any kind of cooking. Pizza, burger,
or a sandwich,
the tomato is a must. There are various uses for the tomato in the
kitchen. It is used raw in salads, served as a cooked vegetable or
used as an ingredient of various prepared dishes. It gets its name
from the Aztec word tomatl.
The plant
Tomato
plants are generally much branched. They spread to anywhere
between two and six feet. They are usually recumbent when
fruiting, but a few forms are compact and upright. The leaves of
the tomato plant are hairy, strongly odorous and pinnately
compound. They grow to a length of forty-five centimeters. The
flowers are clustered and yellow. They measure two centimeters
across.
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The fruit
The
tomato fruit is rich in vitamin C. It is usually red, scarlet or
yellow in color. Because of its varying colors, the tomato fruit
used to be called pomodoro (golden apple) by the Italians. The fruit varies in shape too. It may be elongated, pear
shaped or oval. The
fruit is a soft, succulent berry, containing two to many cells of
small seeds, which is surrounded by a jelly-like pulp. |
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Origin of Tomatoes
The
wild species of tomato is believed to have originated in the
Andean area of South America, mainly in Peru and Ecuador. It is
said to have been domesticated in Mexico, long before the
Europeans were introduced to the fruit. It was only in the early
sixteenth century that tomato was introduced to the Europeans by
the Spanish people. The Spanish and Italians are apparently the
first peoples to have adopted it as a food. The tomato remains a
staple food for the Italians.
The
tomato was initially grown as an ornamental plant in France and
northern Europe. Scientists had classified it as a relative of the
poisonous belladonna and deadly nightshade. Therefore, people were
extremely wary of eating it. An interesting point is that it is
only the fruit which is edible. The roots and leaves of the tomato
plant are poisonous.
From
Europe, the tomato traveled to North America. Thomas Jefferson
raised tomatoes in the year 1871. As early as 1812, the tomato
began to be used as a food item in Louisiana. The north-eastern
states, however, took their time recognizing the tomato as an
edible item. It was only around the year 1835 that the people in
the north-eastern states changed their stance. It took more than a
century for the tomato to become popular in the United States.
Cultivation
The
tomato plant thrives well in relatively warm weather with much
sunlight. It is grown in hothouses in northern Europe and Great
Britain. In the second half of the twentieth century, United
States became one of the world’s largest producers of tomato in
the world. Italy is another major producer. A large percentage of
the produce is used as processed food such as puree, pulp, canned
juice, paste, ketchup and so on.
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