day 28The humble tomato, but it sounds better in Italian don’t you think?
I always seem to associate tomatoes with Italian food but it is believed to have been grown in Mexico first, as early as the 14th century, originally being yellow in colour. It grown in Britain in 1590 by John Gerard who believed it to be poisonous and managed to convinced the whole of Britain that it was and although it was known to be eaten by the Spainish and the Italian it was not eaten in Britain until the mid 18th century. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomato)
So good old wiki came up with a couple of fact but i don’t want you to get too bored but just one more thing, it’s a fruit. Yes, it is! Why? because it has it’s own plant contained within itself, in the seeds. In 1887 in the USA the humble tomato was taken to the supreme court, or maybe i should say the growers were summoned to court. The debate was this, if it was a fruit and couldn’t have an import tax levied gainst it, however if it was a vegetable and could, and thereby protecting the American farmers. The court ruled in favour of the farmers and stated that for tax purposes it was a vegetable because it was served as part of a main meal rather then a desert as a fruit would be, even though it is botanically a fruit.http://www.britishtomatoes.co.uk/facts/index.html
However, yesterday whilst i was in the supermarket and i took the time to have a look for tomatoes in all forms and this is what i came across;
- ye olde humble tomato
- whole plum tomatoes in a can
- chopped tomatoes in a can
- chopped tomatoes in a can with the following; herbs, garlic or chilli
- passata, cooked, squished and sieved tomatoes
- tomato puree
- tomato juice
So at least you won’t get bored, lazy but not bored.
As for the nutritional benefits, Vitamins A, C and E, the natural plant pigment carotenoids (beta-carotene and lycopene) and flavonoids. They also contain potassium and calcium, didn’t know that, but now i do. Links have been found between the eating of tomatoes and the lower of blood pressure, reduction of heart disease, and some cancers. Lycopene is especially effective when used in conjunction with olive oil.
A word of caution, although tomatoes in a can maybe convenient they can sometimes contain high levels of sugar and salt.
Tomatoes have 14cals/100g and contain 93-95% water.
In other words, they are good for you.
love fresh tomatoes from the garden. One of my favourite ways to eat them is with sliced onions and a vinaigrette. yum, yum.
me too, my Dad use to grow them every year but they have to be in season to taste good
I know eh? It’s hard to eat a tomato from the grocery store once you’ve had home grown!
Love fresh ripe local tomatoes, but we can’t hope for those here before late July at the earliest! The rest of the year the canned/bottled/dried ones really taste better, don’t they? (And I like Pomi, even though the packaging isn’t very environmentally friendly. But they taste fresh and don’t have a lot of sodium.)
Not seen any English grown tomatoes yet unless they are organic and that probably means they have been grown in a poly-tent.
This makes me miss my dad.
He always grew TONS of tomatoes every summer so he would have plenty to eat and plenty to give away. My daughter absolutely LOVED his tomatoes. We’ve tried growing them but never have had a great crop.
yes i remember why dad doing that too, they were always sweeter and fresher. Then he would take the seeds out of one and dry them and use them the next year to grow more.
I love pasta pomodoro, but I’m too embarrassed to tell you how long it took me to know what pomodoro meant!
We all have to learn
and there is nothing nicer than tomatoes, onions, garlic, basil and pasta – yum!