Where Are Tomatoes From Tracing The Origins Of The Trusted Tomato

Tomatoes are eaten as a staple in many countries including the Americas.Tomato farmers work extremely hard to keep their crops fresh and safe from the spread of any disease as tomato cultivars significantly vary when it comes to their resistance to disease. Farmers undertake various initiatives to stop the spread of any infection in their crops.It is widely debated that a tomato is a fruit or a vegetable. Tomato is like a cherry, well a big, fat cherry. In this article, you will find the answer to all your questions. Some people like tomatoes but some do not. Which one are you? Tomatoes are generally loved for their savory flavor. They are used in various food dishes such as pizza and pasta. Now a human loves tomatoes, no? So, now do you want to know the history of the tomato? OK, read this article to increase your knowledge about tomatoes and impress your friends. After you are done reading about the domesticated potato plant, do have a look at our other articles on why do tomato leaves curl and why do tomato plants turn yellow?Where did the tomato originally come from?According to history, in 16th-century Europe, tomatoes were often grown but not eaten. Tomatoes originally come from Southern America. But people in Southern America did not use tomatoes in their cooking because they were wild plants. Well rather than history, but science, Tomatine, found in immature tomatoes, is known to be toxic to health. But, the ripe fruit of the tomato plant does not contain tomatin. The Aztecs, native people of central Mexico, were the first who began to domesticate and cultivate tomatoes. They used tomatoes in their cooking at the time of the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire. Because of this, the Spanish came to know about tomatoes. They brought tomatoes to Europe and then tomatoes were introduced to other European colonized areas all over the world. So, the tomato is originally a native of Mexico. Today, numerous varieties and species of tomatoes are grown in temperate climates across the world with great love and care. Seeds are sown in June July for autumn-winter crop and for spring-summer staple crop seeds are sown in November.How did tomatoes end up in Italy?As you know that tomatoes were brought to Europe by the Spanish, from there they got their popularity in entire Europe. Firstly, tomatoes in Italy were considered only an ornamental object. The popularity of tomatoes in Italy was not for their flavor, but because of their beauty. They were grown in a garden and flower beds only for the scenic beauty. Growing tomatoes on the ground were considered low status.The peasants were not willing to eat tomatoes because of their low filling. And also tomatoes had some poisonous varieties which discouraged their use in the kitchen of the common folks. Tomatoes in Italy were solely used as tabletop decorations until they were used in the local cuisine in the late 17th or early 18th century. Later on, tomatoes became a very important part of Italian cuisine, such as tomato sauce pasta, tomato in spaghetti.Do tomatoes grow in the wild?When people come to know that tomatoes make their dishes so delicious, they start searching for more species of tomatoes. They start cross-breeding tomatoes for the good traits, such as sweetness, or more savoriness, or bright color, more juicy or more filling to enhance their taste. And today, we have a lot of varieties of tomatoes, and all of them are greatly loved all over the world.Tomatoes were originally grown as wild until they were domesticated by Mexicans. Wild tomatoes are the ancestors of the tomatoes you have in your kitchen, just like monkeys are our ancestors. Do you know that they are still grown in the wild in some regions in Peru and Ecuador? Wild tomatoes are almost the size of a pea. If you go to Ecuador or Peru and come across these wild tomatoes, you can taste them. They are not toxic. They have a bright reddish-orange color. Even places like Peru do not have the resistance to avoid this tasty fruit.What did the original tomato look like?Every organism in this world has gone through the process of evolution. Some plants or animals become large while some become small. Some evolved to different colors, while others evolved to bring new parts to their bodies, and some lost some parts. Tomatoes are no exception to this process. They also went through many kinds of evolution throughout their entire journey from their creation to the day today.The tomatoes you see today were not like this when they first came into this world. You won’t believe it, but tomatoes were originally purple in color. Can you imagine a purple tomato? They were purple probably because of the presence of toxic components. Or maybe because of the environment. But, whatever be the reason, slowly they evolved to have the bright red color which is greatly loved by Italians and other Europeans. And they also evolved in those species which do not contain the toxic components, which make them healthy for us to eat. Today, they have become a very important part of our food and we can’t imagine our food without tomatoes.Origin Of The Word ‘Tomato’The English word ‘tomato’ is derived from the Spanish word tomate, which is ultimately derived from the Nahuatl word tomato, which means ’the swelling fruit’. Tomato gets this name because of its swollen body and juicy texture. In older English, it is also referred to as ‘Love Apple’, probably because of its fresh red appearance.Tomatoes belong to the nightshade family. All the plants of the nightshade family, including eggplants, pepper, and potatoes, contain poisonous alkalines. No wonder why they were used as only ornamental objects in the first instance. But later on, when science developed and scientists made new breeds of tomatoes, they are no more toxic and very good for our health. Today, if you told someone that tomatoes are toxic for your health, they won’t believe you and will probably make fun of you. But you know that this is true. The original nature of the tomato was poisonous.Is the tomato a fruit or a vegetable?This is a highly debatable topic, where to put tomatoes, in the fruit list or in the vegetable list. Many consider this as fruit while others as vegetables. Let’s solve this debate and find a satisfactory answer.Tomatoes are the berries of a plant which is commonly known as the tomato plant. And as you know berries are fruits so, technically tomatoes are fruit. Next time when someone asks you whether a tomato is a fruit or vegetable, you know the answer. But you might be thinking that, if the tomato is a fruit, then why is it used in a vegetable salad? Well, this is because tomatoes are the fruit of a vegetable plant. Although tomato is a fruit, it would be rude to say that tomato soup is a smoothie. Tomato soup is a soup.When did tomatoes come to America?Although tomatoes originated in South America in the wild, as explained earlier, they are native to Mexico and were popularised by Europeans all over the world through their colonization policies. When Northern America was a colony of Britain, Northern America also got introduced to tomatoes by the Britishers. The earliest evidence of tomatoes in America was found in the early 18th century. Like Italy, Americans also used tomatoes as an ornamental object, because they believed that tomatoes are poisonous and harmful to their health. But slowly and gradually they also accepted tomatoes as nice food ingredients and love to make new dishes that contain tomatoes.Just like other countries, America also did some experiments with various breeds of tomatoes to make them as they want to eat them. With these experiments and the suitable climate for tomatoes, today America became a major producer of tomatoes.Are tomatoes good for our guts?After reading the above information, you are probably thinking that eating a tomato is not good for your health. The use of the tomato should be abandoned, and it should be replaced with strawberries or probably chocolates. But they are not that bad for your health. In fact, according to science, they have many nutritious values which are necessary for your gut.Tomatoes have prebiotic fibers which are considered good for the microbes in your intestine. Yes, you have a number of microorganisms in your gut that help your food digest. They are the good microbes that provide you protection from the bad microbes.Other than fibers, tomatoes also have antioxidants. It is found that tomatoes are rich in lycopene, a kind of antioxidant that has the ability to protect the cells from damage. The same study also found that both raw and cooked tomatoes contain a good amount of lycopene to protect your cells.Other than that, tomatoes also have many more nutritious elements such as vitamins (A, B6, K), lutein, manganese, zeaxanthin, magnesium, potassium, folate, beta carotene. All of these are very good for your gut and overall health. These nutritions help us in fighting various diseases related to skin, heart, eyes, gut.Here at Kidadl, we have carefully created lots of interesting family-friendly facts for everyone to enjoy! If you liked our suggestions for where are tomatoes from, then why not take a look at why do tomatoes split, or how to cut tomatoes?

Tomatoes are eaten as a staple in many countries including the Americas.