Plump, juicy tomatoes are a sure sign of a good summer. The best kind are straight from your garden, or from a local farm. I love eating them with only a sprinkle of salt, like an apple. A little girl told me once that she liked tomatoes better than candy, and she would know a good tomato since her family harvests over 62 varieties daily.
Not a tomato fan? Maybe you just haven’t met the perfect one. It’s quite possible since the type that are likely sold at your local grocer are nothing like the heirloom type I ate for dinner the other night. Keep reading to learn a little more about these lovely edibles and visit localharvest.org to scout out a local farm selling organic heirloom tomatoes to die for.
- Botanically, a tomato is the ovary of a flowering plant, therefore it is a fruit, or, more specifically, a berry. However, since it is more savory than other berries, most people refer to it as a vegetable culinarily – is that even a word?
- Originating in South America, the tomato was spread around the world following the Spanish colonization of the Americas, and its many varieties are now grown worldwide.
- The tomato took some time to be accepted because tomatoes were thought to be poisonous, like other members of the nightshade family. It was not until the 1900s that tomatoes started to gain popularity in the united states.
- There quite literally are thousands of tomato varieties, including heirloom. Heirloom tomatoes are rarely sold in commercial stores because they cannot make the far distant trip without bruising or going to mush. That is why you should grow them at home; more about heirloom tomatoes here.
- Tomatoes are packed with lycopene, which has antioxidant and cancer-preventing properties.
- It may not be surprising that organic tomatoes contain three times as much lycopene as their chemical laden counterparts; buy chemical free when you can.
- Lycopene absorption is enhaned when consumed with fat-rich foods, such as avocado, olive oil or nuts. This is because carotenoids (which lycopene is) are fat-soluble, meaning they are absorbed into the body along with fats.
- It is claimed that the French referred to the tomato as pommes d’amour, or apples of love, as they thought them to have stimulating aphrodisiacal properties.
selection: The best tomato is a locally grown tomato. Those found at your local supermarket (with the exception of supermarket’s that source their produce from local farms; know any?) are usually shipped from hundreds of miles away and are significantly under par compared to a perfectly ripe, freshly picked heirloom tomato from your own backyard or neighborhood farm. When you do shop for tomatoes, pick ones that have a rich color, smooth skin, sweet and delicious smell, and will give slightly to pressure.
storage: tomatoes should never be refrigerated; the cold ruins their flavor and texture. The best place to store them is in a basket on your counter or kitchen table. In season, they’re better than a bouquet of flowers.
use: Tomatoes should be eaten within a few days of picking them, before they go soft. Remove stems, wash the tomatoes, and eat raw, sliced with a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and salt, on sandwiches, pizzas, in soups, juiced, or in your favorite tomato dish.
Tomatoes are easy to dehydrate and/or can, which makes them easily accessible when fresh organic tomatoes are out of season.
What is your favorite way to eat a tomato? Or maybe, tomah-to?
somewhere in time {archived zupas article about tomatoes here}
