August 12, 2016
Xitomatl is the Aztec name for tomatoes, who originated, it is believed, in Peru. The translation can be found in today’s title. And if you still wonder whether they are vegetable or fruit, all I can say it depends who you ask. Botanists will tell you they are a fruit, since they are sacs containing seeds.
A legal scholar, on the other hand, will point you to Nix vs. Hedden (1893) http://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-supreme-court/149/304.html a Supreme Court decision that classified the plump things with navels as vegetables. (As so often, the case was ultimately about money – avoiding tariffs on imported vegetables.) The court ruled according to function: we eat tomatoes in salads, soups and main courses, NOT dessert…… (if it is a really clever legal scholar s/he will hasten to point you to Robertson vs Salomon (1883) as well. https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/130/412/case.html Here the Court decided beans were not vegetables but seeds. Oh the glory of our Supremes….
The only things Americans eat more of than tomatoes are potatoes, lettuce and onions. However, 3/4 of our tomato consumption happens in processed form, ketch-up or salsa and sauces. I happen to be one of those who like to slather ketch-up on her spaghetti. However, I can only do that when I eat alone, or the screams of disgust and protest by my loved ones would result in premature deafness. Mostly I like to photograph tomatoes, all kinds and all stages.
Luis Melendes, Still Life with Tomatoes, 1780
Martha Ullman West
You will not, repeat not, be having spaghetti slathered with catsup for lunch today.
Gorgeous tomato photographs, wiedersehn…
friderikeheuer@gmail.com
Hah!
Renate Funk
I could almost smell the green leaves and stems. Such a delicious scent. They even make candles with tomato leaf aroma. When I was a little girl and took a train trip with my mother, I devoured a whole basket full of tomatoes, and a passenger on the train (typical German every-woman type) criticized my mother for not stopping me. No bad consequences, and I can still eat tomatoes like an elephant.
Corie Skolnick
I think it’s against the city code in PDX to put ketchup on spaghetti. Watch your back.
Sam Blair
There are tomatoes, and then, there are Santorini, Greek tomatoes, which make all the rest seem like evolving understudies. Santorinians and foodies claim it’s the loamy, rich volcanic soil under all the sunshine that gives a Santorini tomato such a unique, sweet sensuality. When there, I eat them like apples, unconcerned that the juice is dripping onto my white linen shirt. If you, like me, are a tomato head, you MUST add this to your bucket list.