Maximum Yield Australia/New Zealand March/April 2020 | Page 68

a brief
HISTORY OF
THE
TOMATO
by Philip McIntosh
It was only a few generations
ago that tomatoes were
taboo, feared to be poisonous.
A few brave souls allayed
those fears, and now tomatoes
are one of the most widely
grown crops in the world.
Philip McIntosh explains how
tomatoes made the turn from
shunned to loved.
66
Maximum Yield
O
ne day in 1820, so the story goes,
Col. Samuel Gibbon Johnson
arrived at the Salem courthouse with
a basket of tomatoes. He had offered a
prize for growing the largest tomato fruit
(it contains seeds — not a vegetable,
technically a berry) but no one was
taking him up on it. The tomato, you see,
was an object much feared by many.
To allay the fears of his fellow citizens,
Johnson proceeded to publicly eat a
quantity of the suspect fruit to prove
they were in fact not poisonous. It must
have worked. Today, the tomato (named
Solanum lycopersicum by the founder
of the binomial system of organismal
classification, Linnaeus) is the most
widely grow greenhouse crop and
is cultivated and loved by countless
gardeners around the world.
Exactly how much Col. Johnson’s stunt
contributed to the advancement of the
tomato in American cuisine is debatable
(many others before him had shown that
the fruit of the tomato was safe to eat).
But, the tomato does have a rather up
and down reputation since it was first
brought into wider use from its original
home in western South America. From
there the tomato plant gradually spread
northward into southern Mexico, where
the Aztecs were familiar with it around
3,000 years ago.
Likely evolved from an earlier extant
member of the nightshade family (the
Solanaceae, which includes peppers,
potato, eggplant, and tobacco) and
native to the same part of the world,
the tomato arrived in Europe soon
after Spanish and other explorers
encountered it in the 1500s. Early
“scientists” recognised the tomato’s
similarity to other nightshades (e.g. the
deadly nightshade, Atropa Belladona)
and spread much misinformation
about its edibility. The fact that the
leaves and stems are mildly poisonous,
containing the toxic alkaloids tomatine
and solanine, did not help the fruit’s
reputation. Will eating the leaves kill
you? Not likely. Eventually, people
figured out (thanks in small part to
Col. Johnson and others) that the fruit
of the tomato was safe to eat and was
actually pretty good. The tomato later
surged in popularity in America
starting in the 1880s accompanying
a wave of Italian immigration.
So, why is the tomato so popular today?
From a health and nutrition perspective,
the tomato is a winner: low in calories,
zero fat, high in vitamin C, rich in folic
acid, and full of antioxidants such as
lutein and the carotenoid lycopene. Since
there are thousands of cultivars ranging
from small cherry tomatoes to large
heirloom varieties with diverse shapes
and colours, a tomato can be found for
just about any purpose. Tomatoes add
colour and acidity to any dish and those
types high in sugars can be quite sweet.
Tomatoes are a good source of the
so-called fifth taste — umami. Umami
derives from the flavour of glutamate,
which tomatoes are rich in, and for
whatever reason, people like it. A lot.
Tomatoes are the fourth most purchased
food in grocery stores and tomato
production is on the rise globally with
China being the largest producer. Since
they are such a valuable agricultural
commodity, tomatoes also tend to get hit
with a lot of pesticides in non-organic
production. For that reason, wash
tomatoes thoroughly before use.
Considering how common it has
become it may seem odd that the tomato
was once thought to be to unfit for human
consumption. So, the next time you are
enjoying a pizza, or an appetiser of chips
and salsa, tip your hat to the brave souls
who paved the way for everyone else
to enjoy the flavour of the delicious and
versatile tomato.