Spring 2003 Newsletters
Blueberries for Health
Nutritionists recommend five-to-nine servings of fruits and vegetables a day. Blueberries are now recognized as one of the healthiest fruits you can eat.
In 1997, scientists at the U.S.D.A. Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University found that blueberries were number one in antioxidant activity compared with 40 other commercially available fruits and vegetables. These antioxidants neutralized the damage of free radicals (unstable oxygen molecules) and protected against disease. In fact, they found that it is the anthocyanines, the pigments that creates the deep blue and red colors, that are so beneficial. The antioxidants in blueberries protect against cancer, heart disease and the effects of aging. On going brain research shows that blueberries may reverse short-term memory loss and improve motor skills. In addition to being an antioxidant, blueberries have other health benefits. Studies show that blueberries, like cranberries, are useful in treating and preventing urinary tract infections. Blueberries may also improve night vision and prevent tired eyes.
Blueberries are now available fresh, frozen, canned and in jars year-round. In July and August, look for them at local farms, farmer’s markets and pick-your-own operations. To find a local blueberry farm, check at the Mass. Department of Food & Agriculture Web Site at www.mass.gov/agr.
Tomatoes
Tomatoes are one of the most widely grown vegetables in the world. The United States is the largest producer, followed by China, Turkey, Italy and India. Americans consume over 12 million tons annually; that’s an average of 18 pounds of fresh and 70 pounds of processed tomatoes per person.
It is estimated that 85 percent of home gardeners plant tomatoes each year. Even people without gardens may grow a plant on a balcony or in a container. Tomatoes are so popular because they are relatively easy to grow and can be grown anywhere. Garden tomatoes also have a delicious flavor and can be easily preserved for out-of-season use.
Tomato History
The tomato belongs to the genus Lycopersicon, and is a member of the Nightshade family (Solanaceae), along with potatoes, eggplants, peppers, tobacco and the very poisonous belladonna or nightshade. Tomatoes originated in the tropics, where they are perennial. In colder climates, they are an annual; they will die after frost and must be replanted from seed each year.
The tomato is believed to have originated on the western coast of South America, in what is now Peru, Bolivia, northern Chile and Ecuador. Wild tomatoes can still be found in this area, including eight different species in Peru.
From Peru, the tomato was brought north to Central America around 700 AD, where it was domesticated. Ancient Aztec writings mention dishes of tomatoes, peppers and salt. Tomatoes of the species Lycopersicon esculentum cerasiforme were widely cultivated throughout Central America when the first Conquistadors arrived in the 1500s. This species is thought to be the direct ancestor of cultivated tomatoes. In fact, it still grows wild in Central America, producing small, cherry-like fruits on a creeping vine.
The Conquistadors brought the tomato to Spain. They spread through travel to Italy and France. Tomatoes flourished in the warm climate of the Mediterranean and were used in recipes from the late 17th century onward. The early development of new and hardy strains was centered around the Mediterranean, and by the mid-18th century there were more than 1,000 varieties cultivated throughout Spain, Portugal, Italy and the south of France.
Northern European countries regarded the tomato as a curiosity and grew it only as an ornamental for over a century. Eventually, with the availability of glass-houses that could extend the growing season, they grew tomatoes for food.
When tomatoes were first introduced to the colonies in North America, they were used primarily as a medicine for pustule removal. By the mid-18th century, they were cultivated in the Carolinas, and by the late 1700s the migrating farmers took tomato cultivation north and west. Thomas Jefferson introduced them to his table in 1781. By the early 19th century tomatoes were widely used in cooking.
The earliest record of marketing tomatoes are from the early 1800s in Europe. By 1835, tomatoes were sold in Boston’s Quincy Market.
Tomato Hybridizing
In 1863, a seed catalogue listed 23 cultivars of tomatoes, including Trophy, the first modern-looking large, red, smooth-skinned variety. It fetched five dollars for a packet of 20 seeds. Large- scale breeding for particular traits for both home and commercial use became commonplace in the 18th and 19th century, particularly in Europe and North America. By the 1880s, several hundred cultivars had been named.
There are now several thousand varieties and new hybrids are constantly being introduced. They range from those that are specially hybridized and grown for supermarkets to old-fashioned, heritage tomatoes.
All tomatoes have perfect flowers, containing both pistils and stamen. Wild species and older hybrid tomatoes are self-incompatible. They require open pollination. Since they do not naturally out-cross very often, seeds of a tomato will produce plants resembling the parents. Early cultivars did not change much because of this property, and were kept in a family or community for long periods of time, thus earning the name heirlooms.
The newer hybrids are self-pollinating; they become genetically homozygous after many generations. The major features of domestication are enlarged fruit and a gradual shortening of the flower style. The shorter style reduces the chance that pollen from a different tomato will be able to pollinate the flower. Full enclosure of the pistil by the anthers, a feature which virtually guarantees self fertilization, was finally achieved through hybridizing in 1965.
Careful cross pollination and generations of selective breeding can vary many characteristics. Many hybrid tomatoes have been bred for traits that make them best adapted to large-scale commercial growers. This includes maximum yield; uniformity in size and shape; the ability to ripen all fruit at once for mechanical harvesting; a tolerance for fertilizers and pesticides; tough skins that withstand long-distance shipping and handling, and an extended shelf life.
Commercially, the fruit is picked when it is half-ripe, to extend shelf-like and so that it will reach the customer when it is at peak ripeness. Many tomatoes are now sold on the vine, partly for aesthetic reasons, and partly because it helps them to ripen better and keep a little longer.
Supermarkets may commission growers to breed tomatoes that fit their exact requirements, from sweetness and color to shape and skin thickness. These tomatoes are grown exclusively for their stores and a new, own-brand name is chosen, which does not reveal the tomatoes’ origins, even though it might be a hybrid of a familiar variety.
Massachusetts ranks about 20th in the country for fresh market tomato production. Some tomatoes are grown for sale to supermarkets and restaurant, while others are sold locally at farm stands and farmers’ markets. In recent years, some Massachusetts farmers have grown heirloom tomatoes for sale to restaurants and specialty markets. A number of hydroponic growers also raise tomatoes, especially for the early market. Many other farms and nurseries are growing tomatoes plants for sale to the home gardener.
In the most recently compiled agricultural census for the year 1996, Massachusetts fresh market tomatoes were planted on 500 acres across the state. The crop weighed in at 68,000 cwt, with a price of $85 per cwt for a total value of $5,780,000. This equals 1.2 percent of the total agricultural dollars in Massachusetts.
Tomato Culture
- Sow seeds 1/4" deep indoors 6-8 weeks before the last spring frost. They will germinate, in 10-14 days.
- Transplant into individual 3-4 inch pot, once plants have 2-3 true leaves. Set plants slightly deep to allow new roots to form along the buried stem. Water and liquid fertilize.
- Harden off plants by setting them outdoors in a sheltered, partly shaded location during the day and bringing them inside at night. Slowly increase the plant’s exposure to direct sunlight
- Plant outdoors once all danger of frost has passed. Set seedlings deeper in the ground than they grew in pots to encourage roots along the buried stem.
- Determinate or bush type tomatoes should be planted 12-24 inches apart. They do not require staking but will benefit from hilling up the soil around the stem when plants are a foot high.
- Indeterminate tomatoes should be planted 24-36 inches apart. They will continue to climb throughout the season and need to be staked. When the vine reaches the top of the stake, pinch off the terminal to stop vertical growth.
- Feed plants during the season with a fertilizer that is high in phosphorus and potassium, and low in nitrogen. Be sure to fertilize when plants start to blossom.
- Mulch around tomato plants once the soil has warmed up to help conserve moisture and suppress weeds.
- Water consistently throughout the season to maintain plant growth and fruit production. To encourage ripening, cut back on watering once the plants begin to mature fruits.
- It takes between 40 and 60 days for each flower to ripen into a fruit. For best flavor, tomatoes should ripen on the vine; this takes 4-6 days from first color.
- Tomatoes will continue flowering and producing until frost or until the days become shorter. Cover tomato plants or cages with old sheets or burlap to protect them at night from the first light frosts and extend the harvest season. Later in the fall, harvest all fruits that have any hint of color and bring them inside to ripen on a windowsill.
- Tomatoes diseases can be prevented or minimized through good cultural practices. Mulching tomatoes and removing all crop debris from the garden in the fall will help prevent blight. Control fusarium wilt and verticillium wilt by selecting resistant varieties and rotating crops. Blossom-end rot is caused by a calcium deficiency or stressed plant that had not received consistent moisture. Provide even watering, fertilize and mulch.
- Insect pests that bother tomatoes include flea beetles and Colorado potato beetles. Control flea beetles by dusting plant leaves with rotenone. Examine the undersides of tomato leaves and crush any orange eggs of the potato beetle you find there. The large green tomato hornworm can be controlled by examining plants regularly and removing the caterpillars. Don’t destroy any hornworms that have little white egg cases on their backs. These eggs have been deposited by a brachonid wasp. Once the eggs hatch, the baby wasps will feed on the hornworms and control the pest naturally. Place collars of stiff paper around the stems of young plants to prevent cut worm damage.
Harvesting Tomatoes
Harvest tomatoes when the fruit is ripe or almost ripe and has turned the mature color. It should come off the stem easily without pulling. Tomatoes that have started to change color, will continue to ripen within the house on a sunny window sill. Removing fruit as it ripens, helps to bring remaining fruit to maturity and also prevents cracking. Always pick tomatoes before watering plants, to reduce water content and keep flavor.
Tomato Types and Purposes
Whether you grow your own tomatoes, or buy them from a local farm or grocery store, there are a wide variety of tomatoes from which to choose, both hybrids and older heirloom varieties. Did you know the size and shape of the tomatoes tells you how best to use it?
Beefsteak Tomatoes: These large and sometimes ridged tomatoes used to be called oxhearts. They are usually deep red or orange and have firm texture, plenty of flesh and a sweet mellow flavor due to low acidity and high water content. They are good eaten raw, sliced, grilled or fried.
Cherry Tomatoes: These small dainty cherry-sized tomatoes come in red, yellow and orange and are very sweet. High in sugar and low in acid, they are good in salads or for cooking whole.
Pear Tomatoes: These pear-shaped tomatoes come in red, yellow and orange and are usually quite small. They are decorative and among the most flavorful and tastiest of the tomatoes.
Plum Tomatoes: Plum tomatoes are elongated and egg-shaped. They are flavorful and highly acid, with meaty flesh, few seeds, a thick core and strong skin which is easily peeled. Use red plums for cooking and canning.
Round or Salad Tomatoes: These, the most commonly grown tomato, are medium-sized, easy to grow and prolific. They are acidic with a full flavor. Excellent raw or used in cooking.
Heirloom Tomatoes
The qualities that make modern hybrid tomatoes important to large-scale commercial growers have little value to home gardeners and small local growers, who most prize taste, freshness and an extended harvest. While many hybrid varieties are well-suited to the small garden, heirlooms provide a choice. These are tomatoes that have been selected for a particular trait and handed down in families for generations.
Heirloom varieties are open pollinating. This means that unlike hybrids, the seeds produced by these tomatoes will produce the same fruiting characteristics as the parents. If you want to save your own seed, open pollinated varieties are the only real choice.
Seed saving is a great way to share favorite varieties with friends, save money and also be assured that you will have access to the same varieties year after year. Seed saving also helps to maintain genetic diversity by keeping the old strains alive, not just the most fashionable, biggest or best.
The tomato’s popularity as a vegetable has helped preserve many fine varieties, some dating back hundreds of years. Most heirloom varieties are unique in size, shape or color. Some are black, dark purple, red with black shoulders, yellow or even orange. Many are green, some have green stripes, others are rainbow colored or shaped like peppers. Heirlooms may be as small as a cherry or as large as two pounds or more.
Many heirloom cultivars have colorful histories. The Mortgage Lifter Tomato was developed by a West Virginia man whose radiator repair shop had little business when people abandoned their cars during the depression. He repeatedly crossed his four largest-fruited tomato plants to create a plant that produced two-pound fruits. He sold each plant for a dollar, claiming one plant would feed a family of six. Within four years, he paid off his four thousand dollar home mortgage.
Names of heirloom cultivars often reflect some of the history of the plant. Polish is a cultivar said to have been smuggled into the US on the back of a postage stamp in the late 1800s. Brandywine was developed by an Amish farmers near Brandywine Creek in Chester County, Pennsylvania in 1885. Hillbilly came from the hills of West Virginia and Broad Ripple Yellow Currant was found growing in a sidewalk crack near 56th and College in Indianapolis.
Heirloom tomatoes have become very popular in recent years. Young plants can be found at many nurseries and farm stands in the spring. Later in the season, you will find heirloom tomato fruits at local farms and farmers markets. Editors note: I have been growing heirloom tomatoes for years and enjoy their color, variety and flavor. Look for some of these favorite varieties:
- Amish Paste: Wisconsin; indeterminate tomato with deep red, elongated eight-ounce fruits. Firm and meaty, with few seeds and low acidity.
- Andine Cornue: (Peruvian Horn) recently introduced from the Andes. Large fruits look like sweet peppers with pointed ends.
- Black Krym: (Black Russian) Black Sea Port of Krymsks, deep black-red skin and maroon flesh with delicate melting complex flavor, 12 ounces.
- Brandywine: Amish Heirloom from Pennsylvania, disease-resistant plants with reddish-pink fruit with succulent rich flavor, good balance of acid and sweet, 1-2 pound tomato.
- Cherokee Purple: Tennessee, indeterminate, 12- ounce round globes of dusky brown with green shoulders. Brick red flesh and full flavored.
- Costoluto Genovese: Italian Riviera, indeterminate, prolific scarlet, ribbed tomato with rich meaty texture, hint of acidity and 7 ounces.
- Evergreen: Indeterminate beefsteak-type tomato; green skin with yellow highlights. Green flesh.
- Green Zebra: attractive tomato with dark green stripes on a yellow background, emerald green flesh with sweet flavor and subtle tang, 3 ounces
- Golden Queen: (1882) Indeterminate orange slicing tomato, 4-6 ounce globes, flesh is sweet, mild and sub acid, some have hollow cavities.
- Marmande: Provence, semi-determinate scarlet- red tomato, ribbed shoulders, aromatic and fruity, firm meaty flesh. 8 ounces. Disease resistant.
- Pruden’s Purple: indeterminate, large 1 pound, meaty, deep pink globes with crimson flesh, few seeds, resembles, Brandywine, but ripens earlier.
- Risentraube: (before 1847) indeterminate, many clusters of 20-40 large red cherry tomatoes with rounded pear shape, superb flavor and fruity.
- White Beauty: (Snowball) large, 1 pound, beefsteak tomato, slightly flattened and ribbed, with creamy white flesh with sweet, mild flavor.
- Yellow Currant: (close to the wild species) indeterminate, tiny, reddish-orange fruit in grape-like clusters, crisp sweet flavor. Disease resistant.
- Yellow Pear: (1600's) indeterminate and vigorous, small pear-shaped tomato with yellow skin, mild sweet flavor. Disease resistant
- Zapotec Ribbed: (Zapotec Pleated) Oaxaca, Mexico, beautiful 4-8 ounce tomato with hollow, ruffled pink fruits. Sweet. Perfect for stuffing.
Eat Your Tomatoes for Health
The tomato is a good source of Vitamin A, Vitamin C (a four ounce tomato provide a of the RDA for Vitamin C) and if eaten raw contains significant amounts of Vitamin E. This amount varies with the variety. Some cherry tomatoes for instance, contain five times as much Vitamin E as other types.
Tomatoes also contain potassium, calcium, beta-carotene, folic acid, trace amounts of iron and other mineral salts, a small amount of protein and no cholesterol. Fiber content is typically about 1.5 percent, there is very little fat and only five calories per ounce. Each tomato is actually 93 to 95% water.
The beta-carotene offers protection from cancer. Tomatoes also contains more lycopene than any other fruit or vegetable. This bioflavonoid is a powerful antioxidant that may help to lower the risk of cancer, particularly prostrate and colon cancer, and heart disease. Other research has shown benefits against cervical, stomach and other cancers.
Lycopene is a fat-soluble nutrient that is readily absorbed into the blood stream when tomatoes are cooked with oil. The lycopene in cooked and processed tomatoes such as sauce, paste, salsa, and canned tomatoes is more easily absorbed than in raw tomatoes.
Tomatoes may have the same effect that aspirin has on circulation. Researchers in Scotland recently discovered that tomatoes may help reduce circulatory problems in the heart, brain and elsewhere. This study found that tomatoes contain a powerful substance that prevents blood clots from forming.
The scientists are calling it the "tomato factor." It interferes with the clumping of platelets in the blood, reducing the risk of clot formation in blood vessels. The "tomato factor" is found in the yellow jelly surrounding the tomato seeds. In one study, platelet activity was reduced by more than 70 percent with only four tomatoes. The platelet activity did not increase the risk of internal hemorrhage or bleeding after injury.
A Fruit or A Vegetable?
The term fruit is a botanical term. Many fruits are edible, but others are not. Fruits grow from flower parts and therefore are only found on flowering plants. After fertilization occurs, each ovule develops into a seed and the ovary matures and enlarges to become a fruit. Fruits can be either fleshy (peaches, tomatoes, olives, cucumbers, rose hips) or dry (nuts, grains, lima beans, acorns, maple helicopters).
The term vegetable is not a botanical term: vegetable refers to an edible plant or an edible part of a plant. Vegetables can be any part of the plant: Roots (beets and sweet potatoes), Stems (celery), Leaves (kale and lettuce), Flowers (brussel sprouts), Fruits (squash and tomatoes) or seeds (peanuts). Usually vegetable are eaten as part of a main meal, such as salad, soup, casserole or side dish.
The tomato is botanically a fruit. In fact it is a very large berry. But from a culinary point of view it is nearly always grouped with vegetables. The United States Supreme Court ruled that it is a vegetable in 1893. Due to increasing international trade, a tariff of ten percent was levied on all imported vegetables. The court classified the tomato as a vegetable and therefore liable to be taxed. They reasoned that tomatoes along with cucumbers, squashes, beans and peas, though technically fruits, are grown in kitchen gardens and generally served at dinner, thus they are, in culinary vernacular, vegetables.
Activity: Draw a Venn Diagram and put these Massachusetts crops in the correct space in the circles: Apple, Bean Sprout, Blueberry, Broccoli, Brussel Sprout, Cantaloupe, Carrot, Celery, Cherry, Eggplant, Grape, Lettuce, Lima Bean, Onion, Pear, Pea Pod, Pepper, Potato, Raspberry, Spinach, Strawberry, Tomato, Watermelon and Zucchini.
Love Apple or Wolf Peach
The Aztecs gave the name xitomatl, meaning plump, to what we now call the tomato. They may have chosen this name because native tribes called a smaller, but unrelated, fruit the tomatl.
The Spanish called it pome dei Moro or Moor’s Apple, although they later settled on the name tomate. In Italy, it was know as pomi d'oro or golden apple, because the first tomatoes to reach Europe were yellow varieties. Red tomatoes were said to be introduced by two Catholic priests many years later.
In France, it was called pomme d'amour or love apple, and was suspected to be an aphrodisiac. This name may also come from folk medicine which links a plants appearance to its therapeutic use; the tomato resembles a heart.
The English believed it was poisonous and grew it only as a curiosity in their gardens. Although tomato fruit was not poisonous, it was associated with other poisonous members of the Solanaceae family, especially deadly nightshade or "Belladonna." Nightshade was used as both a hallucinogenic drug and a beauty aid. The hallucinogenic effects included visions and the sense of flying. This most likely led to the association of nightshade with witchcraft.
Old German folklore claims that witches used plants of the nightshade family to evoke werewolves, a practice known as lycanthropy. The common German name for tomato translates to "wolf peach." In the 18th century Carl Linnaeus created the system of binomial nomenclature to name plant species. He gave the tomato the scientific name Lycopersicon esculentum, which literally means "edible wolf peach"
The English word tomato was probably first coined in Jamaica, where English colonists may have heard Spanish-owned slaves speak of tomatoes.
Tomatoes Resources
Books
Taylor’s Guide to Heirloom Vegetables by Benjamin Watson |
Growing Tomatoes by Richard Bird and Christine France |
100 Heirloom Tomatoes for the American Garden by Carolyn J. Male. |
The Great Tomato Book by Gary Ibsen |
First Fruit: The Creation of the Flavr Savr Tomato and the Birth of BioTech Food by Belinda Martineau.
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Tomato Soup by Thatcher Hurd. |
Information for this newsletter was taken from the resources listed above.
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