Tomato Grab Bag

There are 4,000 different types of tomatoes.

We, as people, may have our thumbs and precious frontal lobes but tomatoes, like all members of the (deadly*) nightshade family possess genetic elasticity. If you put seeds from the same plant in 2 different climates, they will adapt to the local conditions to the point of appearing to being different cultivars. Replant the progeny's seeds in the same soil conditions the plants will grow up the same. As for my personal elasticity - place me in a hot, humid environment and I can’t function, let alone adapt.

The tomato is the 34th most valuable crop in the state of Oregon. Wedged in between raspberries at 33rd and sheep and tuna – 35th & 36th respectively.  The state crop was worth about 13 million dollars in 2008. In the US, tomatoes are the 2nd most valuable veg crop, well behind its cousin the potato.

After an especially brutal wheat shortage in Italy, Mussolini dictated that people grow wheat in their gardens. This did little to ameliorate the bread shortage, but the policy was able to create a tomato shortage and subsequent riots.

*Either due to custom or style guides, the word deadly appears in front of the word nightshade 87% of the time. Nightshade deadly? Well, maybe not such much. All members of the family produce an alkaloid to ward off predators. For tomatoes, most of the alkaloid is found in green leaves and green tomatoes - green in the under ripe sense. The culprit is a toxin called tomatine, which is now believed to be the opposite of deadly, being good for lowering cholesterol and all.

From its 17th century ‘love apple’ moniker, the tomato has been promoted as a medicinal wonder. Pomme d'amour is thought to be an endorsement of the tomatoes good for wood aphrodisiac qualities, but that overlooks a century long belief the tomato was thought to be the antidote for that other New World import and killer of Pope’s, syphilis.

Currently, the neo-Galen’s tell us the tomato is full of Vitamins A & C and packs a wallop with its antioxidant Kung Fu, especially lycopene. Lycopene, a carotenoid, that is believed to repair cell damage and prevent certain kinds of cancer, including prostate. Funny thing about lycopene, it appears in greater concentrations in cooked tomatoes – canned, paste, ketchup – health surveys repeatedly show people who eat more processed foods like ketchup are less healthy and more likely to develop cancers.

The state of tomatoes makes writers cranky. Calvin Trillin kinda started the tomatoes are tasteless meme in Alice; Let’s Eat, comparing the shelf life of a shrunk-wrapped supermarket tomatoes to that of a mop handle. Little is to be lost by bemoaning the state of supermarket tomatoes – makes you sound Pollanesque by stating the obvious. Besides there are tomatoes that have predictably great flavor in the grocery store – the super sweet varieties from Mexico and the hot house tomatoes that arrive from Canada are more consistently flavorful than the flavor roulette that many heirlooms varieties offer.

As much as people grouse about the flavor of fresh tomatoes, they also tend to get most weepy about tomatoes when they talk about combining it with other strong-to-overwhelming flavors – garlic and basil in tomato sauce, cilantro and peppers in salsa and bacon and mayo on a BLT. Just sayin’ maybe the tomato is a symbol for industrialization instead of a Wild Strawberry trope of the American Idyllic, Just speculatin’ there.

One last speculation - Before it became a popular food, the plant was grown as an ornamental. I still make the argument that throwing a red tasteless slab on a bun, the plant still fulfills that function.


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