With all the rain and heat, it's been a good summer for tomatoes in central Missouri. In fact, a friend who has a farm southeast of Columbia brought me a sack of yellow and red globes just the other day; delicious and nutritious (a good source of Vitamin A, C and lycopene, a potent antioxidant), they were much appreciated.
One would think that tomatoes originated in Italy, considering the cuisine of that country. But current evidence suggests that ancestral tomatoes grew in the highlands of Peru and Bolivia and that they were first domesticated in Central America. Spanish explorers brought their seeds to the Mediterranean region and to Southeast Asia in the 16th Century; however, since their foliage resembles that of the deadly nightshades (to which they are related), they were initially thought to be poisonous and did not become part of the European diet for another hundred years or more.
British settlers brought tomatoes to North America in the late 18th Century and, today, the U.S. is second only to China in their production. Though commonly considered a vegetable, the tomato is a fruit from the botanist's point of view; its parent plant, a branching vine, is a perennial in warm climates but is grown as an annual in temperate regions. A close cousin of chili peppers and eggplant, the tomato is widely cultivated across the globe and is now represented by more than 7000 varieties.
