This is Tammy Proctor. It’s tomato time in Cache Valley, and as we continue our exploration
of comfort foods, I decided to look into the history of this fruit that features in so many of our most beloved
comfort foods.
Tomatoes are one of those magical foods that while classified as a fruit, is often eaten as a
vegetable. Tomatoes originated in the Americas, and deep in their past, they were probably small bitter berries
growing wild on the Pacific coasts of South America. The big change in their story came when they were
domesticated and grown for food, and most historians agree that this occurred in what is modern day Mexico.
The Aztecs called these little fruits “tomatl”, so that is where our term comes from. Since that first domestication,
tomatoes have been bred for all kinds of uses, and any gardener knows that there are thousands of varieties that
one can grow. My alumni mater, Rutgers University, has a pretty long list of tomato varieties on its extension
website – so check those out.
I am a European historian, so the introduction of tomatoes into Europe is of particular interest to me. Even though
we associate them with European cuisine – think of Italian pasta sauces – they were slow to catch on at first. Part
of the reason is that tomatoes are in the nightshade family, which was known to Europeans in a number of deadly
forms.
The fact that tomato plants looked a lot like the deadly nightshades made people understandably nervous
about trying this strange new plant. However, they were firmly established on European menus by the nineteenth
century.
We can get tomatoes all year round in the grocery store these days, but I suspect few would dispute the statement
that fresh homegrown summer tomatoes are a different thing entirely. They smell better, they taste better, they are
often juicier – so why is that?
There are a couple of reasons. One, most groceries obtain tomatoes from long
distances away, so farmers pick the fruit before they are ripe and let them ripen and redden as they travel to the
shelf. Sometimes this so-called ripening is helped along by the exposure of the fruit to ethylene gas, which helps
them become red. Also, groceries often pick their tomatoes for shelf life and hardiness, not necessarily for flavor.
Homegrown tomatoes that are ripened on the vine are a different animal entirely. They explode with flavor and
when sliced fresh, the aroma is really like no other food I can think of. Their taste also can be extremely different
depending on the kind of tomato – I grew an heirloom variety a few years ago from seeds I obtained in New
Mexico; these almost tasted tart and they had a very firm texture.
A sliced Big Boy tomato emits wonderful juices hat can make salsa particularly tasty. Little yellow cherry tomatoes are
sweet and can be eaten as a fruit snack. If you want to retain that homegrown flavor for longer, you can try cooking
the tomatoes in a little olive oil on the stove until reduced, and then freeze them for use in tomato sauces in the winter.
I’ve found that they still taste good in December using this treatment. Or if you want to savor the experience of true
tomatoes as a summer treat that is entirely understandable.
So head to the farm stand or gardeners market or your backyard for some fresh tomatoes and stay tuned as we
continue our exploration of comfort foods on Eating the Past every Sunday at noon, right before The Splendid Table
on your UPR station.
