the.com/tomato
a fruit so convincing as a vegetable it once survived a Supreme Court case
means A round, juicy, typically red fruit eaten as a vegetable in countless savory dishes, from sauces to salads.
from From Spanish 'tomate', borrowed from the Nahuatl (Aztec) word 'tomatl', meaning the swelling fruit. Spanish colonizers carried it back from the Americas, and the final '-o' crept in by analogy with 'potato'. Europeans long eyed it with suspicion, since the plant belongs to the nightshade family, and some believed it poisonous before it conquered the kitchen.
- legal status
- Ruled a vegetable by US Supreme Court, 1893
- poison panic
- Once feared deadly by wealthy lead-poisoned Europeans
- family ties
- Cousin to deadly nightshade and tobacco
- genetic feat
- Has more genes than a human
- wartime ammo
- Spain throws 130 tons yearly at La Tomatina
san marzano tomato — protected pdo variety from naples region, italy, with lower acidity and fewer seeds than other tomatoes
brandywine tomato — heirloom variety from pennsylvania, usa, known for large size (up to 1 lb) and rich flavor
raf tomato — spanish variety from almería with ribbed appearance, developed in the 1990s and prized for sweetness