Tomatoes

The tomato originated on the western coast of South America, in present day Peru, where eight species in the tomato genus still grow wild in the Andes Mountains. It seems to have been domesticated in Central America.

This was around the time the Spanish explorer Cortez conquered the Aztec city of Tenochtitlan, later to be renamed Mexico City, in 1521. It is presumed that the tomato found its' way across the Atlantic shortly after.
 
not very many people know that.....
Lycopene, one of nature's most powerful antioxidants, is found almost exclusively in tomatoes. Following is a summary of the promising lycopene research conducted during the past few years.

Tomatoes are lipophilic, which means their nutritional value is increased by being cooked in some fat.
 
 
Cooked tomatoes may be more beneficial to your health than raw tomatoes.
 
Tomatoes are rich in vitamins (A, C, Calcium) and fiber.
 
Tomatoes are rich in the antioxidant Lycopene.
 
There may also be an association between heart health and tomatoes. In a study conducted by University of North Carolina scientists, the fat samples drawn from both heart attack sufferers and healthy controls were analyzed for lycopene and other carotenoids.
Also about 500 years ago people with money had plates made of pewter. Food with high acid content caused some of the lead (in the pewter) to leach onto the food, causing lead poisoning and death. This happened most often with tomatoes, so for the next 400 years or so, tomatoes were considered poisonous.

 

WANT AN EASY START WITH YOUR
 
HYDROPONIC VEGETABLES? 
 
GROW TOMATOES !
 
 
This is for youTomatoes are easy to grow, ANYWHERE! But they are absolute child's play in your Hydroponic garden.No worry about drainage, no worry about bending -remember the hydroponic raised garden?Plant a few carrots with your tomatoes, they love each other!Vegetables, Self Watering, Gardens, Growing.

Tomatoes love warm weather and should have plenty of sun each day. MAKE SURE YOU KEEP THEM WARM remember the hydroponic lights I told you about? Think of that for the more delicate variety. If you like tomatoes, they are a 'must' in your organic hydroponic vegetable garden. Best of all, biting into your own fresh-picked tomatoes creates immediate taste bud ecstasy. As delicious as tomatoes are, their history is both mysterious and interesting.

 

Some more information on tomatoes.................

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Tuh-MAY-toh or Tuh-MAH-to?
 
Pronunciation doesn't matter when it comes to this fabulous nutritious fruit known as a vegetable. It's hard to believe that such a widely-used food source was once considered deadly poisonous. Available year-round in fresh and preserved forms, there is no shortage of uses for this versatile "vegetable." Before getting to the many tomato recipes, learn more about them.
 
Tomato history French botanist Tournefort provided the Latin botanical name, Lycopersicon esculentum, to the tomato. It translates to "wolfpeach" -- peach because it was round and luscious and wolf because it was erroneously considered poisonous. The botanist mistakenly took the tomato for the wolfpeach referred to by Galen in his third century writings, ie., poison in a palatable package which was used to destroy wolves. The English word tomato comes from the Spanish tomatl, first appearing in print in 1595. A member of the deadly nightshade family, tomatoes were erroneously thought to be poisonous (although the leaves are poisonous) by
 
Europeans who were suspicious of their bright, shiny fruit. Native versions were small, like cherry tomatoes, and most likely yellow rather than red.
The tomato is native to western South America and Central America. In 1519, Cortez discovered tomatoes growing in Montezuma's gardens and brought seeds back to Europe where they were planted as ornamental curiosities, but not eaten. Most likely the first variety to reach Europe was yellow in color, since in Spain and Italy they were known as pomi d'oro, meaning yellow apples. The French referred to the tomato as pommes d'amour, or love apples, as they thought them to have stimulating aphrodisiacal properties. Italy was the first to embrace and cultivate the tomato outside South America.

In 1897, soup mogul Joseph Campbell came out with condensed tomato soup, a move that set the company on the road to wealth and further endearing the tomato to the general public. Campbell may have made tomato soup popular, but the first recipe is credited to Maria Parloa in 1872 whose book The Appledore Cook Book describes her tomato chowder. The high acidic content of the tomato makes it a prime candidate for canning, which is one of the main reasons the tomato was canned more than any other fruit or vegetable by the end of the nineteenth century.
I f you happen to be the unfortunate victim of the wrong end of a skunk, tomato juice will neutralize butyl mercaptan, the prime ingredient in the stinky defensive spray. The tomato world record for size is held by Charles Roberts of Great Britain, who in 1974 harvested a whopper weighing four pounds, four ounces -- about the size of a small boy's head. In the United States today, tomatoes are second in consumption only to potatoes.

There are thousands of varieties of tomatoes in an array of shapes, colors and sizes. The most common shapes are round (Beefsteak and globe), pear-shaped (Roma) and the tiny cherry-sized (Cherry and Grape). Yellow varieties tend to be less acidic and thus less flavorful than their red counterparts.
 
NOW DONT GO TO SLEEP..........
 
I will tell you about the history of this wonderful fruit/vegetable in one of my newslettersYOUR TOMATOES will grow so fast that you will need to take care to support them. Large tomatoes require support. Remember the plant supports I told you about? Yes well that's what they need. You will be able to grow huge tomatoes.Vegetables, Self Watering, Gardens, Growing.

HERE IS A GOOD TIP!

If you want some really big fruitpick off all but the last two from the cluster.Your only problem here may be birds nice to have in the garden, but they love tomatoes.So protect your valuable tomatoes from our feathered friends!

Organic Vegetables Are Beautiful... And Delicious!ORGANIC TOMATOES ARE OUT OF THE

Summertime Tomato Care

Last Week's article dealt with establishing your tomato plants. Once they are out in the garden, tomatoes require relatively little extra care. Like the majority of plants in our gardens, they will benefit form an even moisture supply without drastic fluctuations of medium moisture. Whether your medium is sandy or a heavy , this permits easier water infiltration.

Fertilizer

All the fertilizer reqiuired will be supplied from the nutrient water.

 

Growth Type

A tomato plant can be one of two types: either determinate, or indeterminate. A determinate plant has stems which reach a certain size, and then stop or "terminate" their growth, usually ending with a large floral cluster. Just above each leaf on these plants you commonly find a floral cluster. These types of tomatoes comprise the group we commonly call bush tomatoes. They tend to be popular on the prairies because they are among the earliest maturing.

 

An indeterminate plant has stems which continue to elongate throughout the life of the plant forming what we know as tomato vines. On such vines, side branches will arise from the point where a leaf joins the main stem, and flowers will arise some of these branches. Not all of these branches produce flowers however, so large portions of the plant can sometimes be without fruit. To maximize fruit production, vine type tomatoes will usually require pruning and staking, while brush type plants will require no special attention.

 

Pruning and Staking

Pruning and staking your vine type tomatoes results in larger fruit that is held above the growth area where it is less subject to rotting. Proper pruning also exposes more surface of the plant to sunlight improving growth. Because pruning will also result in some thinning of the fruit, the size and quality of fruit remaining is enhanced.

 

To stake a tomato, drive a 1-1.5 m stake into the container beside the plant and loosely tie the main stem of the plant to the stake. As the plant grows, additional ties should be added to ensure that the tomato remains erect. In all cases, the tie should be loose enough that the stem is not constricted or cut. All non-flowering side shoots should be removed immediately after the plant is placed in the garden. When the first flower cluster is evident, allow the side shoot below that flower cluster to grow. Each week you should remove all side shoots that are not growing directly beneath a flower cluster.

 

Harvesting the tomato crop

 

Harvesting tomatoes requires a gentle hand to remove the fruit without damaging the plant or unripe fruits that may be closely associated with the one you are picking. You must pick tomatoes at the right stage of maturity. Tomatoes will ripen naturally off the vine once they have reached the stage of maturity known as "hard green," but a tomato is considered to be mature only when it has reached the "breaker stage" of development. The breaker stage is indicated by the appearance of any pink or red colour on the fruit. At this point, all the chemical actions associated with ripening will proceed identically either on or off the plant, so the tomato that is picked at this point will be indistinguishable from one that has ripened fully on the vine. If a tomato has been picked prior to full ripeness it should be stored at normal room temperatures of about 15-20°C until ripe.

WORLD!

THIS IS WHERE IT ALL BEGAN Wild relatives of the tomato originated in the coastal highlands of western South America, leading to their domestication by Mesoamericans such as the Aztec and Mayan. Herman Cortes first encountered organic tomatoes during his conquest of Mexico in 1519.