TOMATOES - HEIRLOOM

[Guest guest]

Just interesting.TOMATOES - HEIRLOOMPublished: 23 July 2003http://www.jjdst.com/category_mgmt.cfm?product_id=heirloom_tomatoesTomato 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 challengedthe Act maintaining that tomatoes should be exempt from the tax. Nix'schallenge went as far as the US Supreme Court, but was rejected by JusticeGray who wrote: "Botanically speaking, tomatoes are fruits of a vine, justas are cucumbers, squashes, beans, and peas. But in the common language ofthe people .... all these are vegetables, which are grown in kitchengardens, and which, whether eaten cooked or raw, are, like potatoes,carrots, parsnips, turnips, beets, cauliflower, cabbage, celery andlettuce, 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 wherethe first tomatoes originated. The tomato has a very colorful history -originating in one hemisphere, becoming popular in another, returning homefor intensive breeding that eventually produced todays popular tomatoes.Lycopersicon exculentum is distributed worldwide today, and is a culinarydelight!The wild ancestor of the tomato traveled north from Peru several thousandyears before the Spanish began their exploration of Central America in the16th Century. Evidence that the tomato was domesticated in Central Americagoes back to the Pre-Columbian cultures in Peru where textiles and potterywere decorated with crops important to them. Aztec writings in CentralAmerica mentioned dishes that included peppers, salt and tomato - perhapsthe original salsa recipe? The earliest European literature is found in anherbal written by Matthiolus in 1544 - pomi d'oro (golden apple) as atomato is described in Italy, which supports evidence that the firsttomatoes to reach the Old World were a yellow variety which came from theMediterranean area. It is recorded that the red tomato variety reachedItaly via Catholic priests many years after the yellow variety, and thatthe fruit had very rough skin, unlike todays smooth-skinned varieties.By 1781, Jefferson brought tomatoes to his table at his beautifulmountain home Monticello. From this point on, although there were manybumps in the road for the tomato, the western world began to accept thisbountiful fruit.Tomato plants are self-pollinating plants, and become geneticallyhomozygous after a few generations. Tomatoes do not naturally outcrossoften, and if they do, the seeds will produce plants that are similar tothe parents. Because early cultivars did not change much, and were kept ina local area for a long time, they have become known today as heirloomtomatoes.Heirloom tomatoes date back hundreds of years, and are becoming the mostpopular of all tomatoes due to their fabulous flavor - low acid and highacid fruit - colors, shapes and culinary applications. Heirloom tomatoesare available in black, dark purple, green striped, yellow and greenstriped, red, orange, yellow, green, red and black, colors of the rainbow.The shapes of heirloom tomatoes are wide- ranging - like peppers, smalllike 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 (arrivedin the US from Polish immigrants who settled in Ohio), First Pick (fromFrance), Picardy (1890 in France), Besser and Schellenburg's Favorite (fromGermany). The Amish Paste heirloom tomato has been cultivated inPennsylvania since the 1870's! Elbe, wine, Hillbilly, Old Virginia,Jeff (a very old cultivar that honored the Confederacy's onlypresident, and came from Alabama!), Soup Company's Ace is stillbeing used for soups today, Hopkins (grows at Edgar Allan Poe's estate inPennsylvania and is his mother's maiden name), Broad Ripple Yellow Currant,1884. The stories of the heirloom tomatoes are as varied as the immigrantswho carried their seeds to America in hollow canes and waistbands, or theMortgage Lifter variety that was developed by Charlie from West Virginiaduring the Great Depression. Charlie owned a radiator repair shop, fell ondifficult times as people abandoned their cars, used four plants thatproduced the largest tomatoes, crossed them over and over again to create aplant that produced two pound tomatoes. Charlie sold his plants for $1 eachand maintained that one plant would feed a family of six. Within fouryears, this gentleman from West Virginia made enough money with hisMortgage 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 thetomato or outstanding qualities>From the wine, Banana, Cherokee Purple (high acid and terrific on awhite 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 theyear for the beautiful heirloom tomatoes.Enjoy!

"Whether the resistance against government tyrants is nonviolent or physically violent, the effort to overthrow state oppression qualifies as true patriotism". Rep. Ron