92-562: Hunt's is the name of a brand of preserved tomato products owned by Conagra Brands . The company was founded in 1888, in Sebastopol, California , as the Hunt Bros. Fruit Packing Co. , by Joseph and William Hunt. The brothers relocated to nearby Santa Rosa in 1890, and then to Hayward in 1895. This small canning operation grew rapidly, focused on canning the products of California 's booming fruit and vegetable industries. By 1941,
184-524: A Tuscan physician and botanist, wrote that the tomato was eaten fried in oil there. The first Italian cookbook to include tomato sauce, Lo Scalco alla Moderna ("The Modern Steward"), was written by Italian chef Antonio Latini and was published in two volumes in 1692 and 1694. In 1790, the use of tomato sauce with pasta appeared for the first time, in the Italian cookbook L'Apicio Moderno ("The Modern Apicius "), by chef Francesco Leonardi . Alongside
276-547: A case of convergent evolution ) in the cultivated tomato. The analysis predicts that var. cerasiforme appeared around 78,000 years ago, while the cultivated tomato originated around 7,000 years ago (5,000 BCE), with substantial uncertainty, making it unclear how humans may have been involved in the process. The Spanish first introduced tomatoes to Europe, where they became used in Spanish food. Elsewhere in Europe, its first use
368-602: A column surrounding the pistil 's style. The anthers bend into a cone-like structure, surrounding the stigma. The flowers are 1–2 cm (0.4–0.8 in) across, yellow, with five pointed lobes on the corolla ; they are borne in a cyme of three to twelve together. The fruit develops from the ovary of the plant after fertilization, its flesh comprising the pericarp walls. The fruit contains locules , hollow spaces full of seeds. These vary among cultivated varieties. Some smaller varieties have two locules; globe-shaped varieties typically have three to five; beefsteak tomatoes have
460-456: A great number of small locules; and plum tomatoes have very few, very small locules. For propagation, the seeds need to come from a mature fruit, and must be lightly fermented to remove the gelatinous outer coating and then dried before use. The tomato has a mutualistic relationship with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi such as Rhizophagus irregularis . Scientists use the tomato as a model species for investigating such symbioses. Like
552-402: A lighter green, and reducing sugar in the resulting ripe fruit by 10–15%. Perhaps more importantly, the fruit chloroplasts are remodelled during ripening into chlorophyll-free chromoplasts that synthesize and accumulate the carotenoids lycopene , β-carotene , and other metabolites that are sensory and nutritional assets of the ripe fruit. The potent chloroplasts in the dark-green shoulders of
644-978: A name for the fruit. The usual pronunciations of tomato are / t ə ˈ m eɪ t oʊ / (in North American English ) and / t ə ˈ m ɑː t oʊ / (in British English ). The British pronunciation was like the American until the Great Vowel Shift . The word's dual pronunciations were immortalized in Ira and George Gershwin 's 1937 song " Let's Call the Whole Thing Off " ("You like / p ə ˈ t eɪ t oʊ / and I like / p ə ˈ t ɑː t oʊ / / You like / t ə ˈ m eɪ t oʊ / and I like / t ə ˈ m ɑː t oʊ / "). The likely wild ancestor of
736-901: A process that has impaired the fruit's sweetness and flavor. There are thousands of cultivars, varying in size, color, shape, and flavor. Tomatoes are attacked by many insect pests and nematodes, and are subject to diseases caused by viruses and by mildew and blight fungi. The tomato has a strong savoury umami flavor, and is an important ingredient in cuisines around the world. It is used in pizzas , pasta sauces, soups such as gazpacho , curries including dhansak and rogan josh , as juice, and in Bloody Mary cocktails . Tomato festivals are held annually in Buñol , Spain, in Reynoldsburg, Ohio , and in Närpes , Finland. The word tomato comes from
828-412: A serrated margin; both the stem and leaves are densely glandular-hairy. Tomato flowers are bisexual and are able to self fertilize. As tomatoes were moved from their native areas, their traditional pollinators (probably a species of halictid bee ) did not move with them. The trait of self-fertility became an advantage, and domestic cultivars of tomato have been selected to maximize this trait. This
920-619: A staple food in the New World. Citrus fruits and grapes were brought to the Americas from the Mediterranean. At first planters struggled to adapt these crops to New World climates, but by the late 19th century they were cultivated more consistently. Bananas were introduced into the Americas in the 16th century by Portuguese sailors, who brought them from West Africa. Despite this early introduction, they were little consumed in
1012-455: A staple of the peasant population because they were not as filling as other crops. Additionally, both toxic and inedible varieties discouraged many people from attempting to consume or prepare any other varieties. In certain areas of Italy, such as Florence, the fruit was used solely as a tabletop decoration, until it was incorporated into the local cuisine in the late 17th or early 18th century. The earliest discovered cookbook with tomato recipes
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#17327725944551104-479: A variety of bees, such as Melipona or Trigona , European bees ( Apis mellifera )—were more productive, delivering a honey with less water content and allowing for an easier extraction from beehives—were introduced in New Spain, becoming an important part of farming production. The Mapuche of Araucanía were fast to adopt the horse from the Spanish, and improve their military capabilities as they fought
1196-462: Is tobacco mosaic virus . Handling cigarettes and other infected tobacco products can transmit the virus to tomato plants. A serious disease is curly top , carried by the beet leafhopper , which interrupts the lifecycle. As the name implies, it has the symptom of making the top leaves of the plant wrinkle up and grow abnormally. Bacterial wilt is another common disease impacting yield. Wang et al. , 2019 found phage combination therapies to reduce
1288-675: Is a plant whose fruit is an edible berry that is eaten as a vegetable. The tomato is a member of the nightshade family that includes tobacco , potato , and chili peppers . It originated from and was domesticated in western South America . It was introduced to the Old World by the Spanish in the Columbian exchange in the 16th century. Tomato plants are vines, largely annual and vulnerable to frost, though sometimes living longer in greenhouses. The flowers are able to self-fertilise. Modern varieties have been bred to ripen uniformly red, in
1380-486: Is increasing, providing fruit during those times of the year when field-grown fruit is not readily available. Smaller fruit (cherry and grape), or cluster tomatoes (fruit-on-the-vine) are the fruit of choice for the large commercial greenhouse operators while the beefsteak varieties are the choice of owner-operator growers. Tomatoes are also grown using hydroponics . To facilitate transportation and storage, tomatoes are often picked unripe (green) and ripened in storage with
1472-401: Is not the same as self-pollination , despite the common claim that tomatoes do so. That tomatoes pollinate themselves poorly without outside aid is clearly shown in greenhouse situations, where pollination must be aided by artificial wind, vibration of the plants, or by cultured bumblebees . The flowers develop on the apical meristem . They have the anthers fused along the edges, forming
1564-494: Is not used because it violates the International Code of Nomenclature barring the use of tautonyms in botanical nomenclature. The corrected name Lycopersicon lycopersicum (Nicolson 1974) was technically valid, because Miller's genus name and Linnaeus's species name differ in exact spelling. As Lycopersicon esculentum has become so well known, it was officially listed as a nomen conservandum in 1983, and would be
1656-567: Is that humans first came to the New World from Siberia thousands of years ago. There is little additional evidence of contacts between the peoples of the Old World and those of the New World, although the literature speculating on pre-Columbian trans-oceanic journeys is extensive. The first inhabitants of the New World brought with them small domestic dogs and, possibly, a container, the calabash , both of which persisted in their new home. The medieval explorations, visits, and brief residence of
1748-531: The Arauco War against Spanish colonizers. Until the arrival of the Spanish, the Mapuches had largely maintained chilihueques ( llamas ) as livestock. The Spanish introduction of sheep caused some competition between the two domesticated species. Anecdotal evidence of the mid-17th century shows that by then sheep far outnumbered llamas. The decline of llamas reached a point in the late 18th century when only
1840-639: The Columbian exchange ; certainly the tomato was being grown in Europe within a few years of that event. The earliest discussion of the tomato in European literature appeared in Pietro Andrea Mattioli 's 1544 herbal . He suggested that a new type of eggplant had been brought to Italy. He stated that it was blood red or golden color when mature, and could be divided into segments and eaten like an eggplant—that is, cooked and seasoned with salt, black pepper, and oil. Ten years later Mattioli named
1932-722: The Columbian interchange , was the widespread transfer of plants, animals, and diseases between the New World (the Americas ) in the Western Hemisphere , and the Old World ( Afro-Eurasia ) in the Eastern Hemisphere , from the late 15th century on. It is named after the Italian explorer Christopher Columbus and is related to the European colonization and global trade following his 1492 voyage . Some of
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#17327725944552024-486: The Mapuche of Araucania resisted the adoption of Spanish technology, holding to their ancestral customs . Indigenous people have often been seen as static recipients of transatlantic encounters, but thousands of Native Americans crossed the ocean during the sixteenth century, some by choice. The Atlantic slave trade consisted of the involuntary immigration of 11.7 million Africans, primarily from West Africa, to
2116-575: The Norsemen in Greenland , Newfoundland , and Vinland in the late 10th century and 11th century had no known impact on the Americas. Many scientists accept that possible contact between Polynesians and coastal peoples in South America around the year 1200 resulted in genetic similarities and the adoption by Polynesians of an American crop, the sweet potato . However, it was only with
2208-654: The potato , tomatoes belong to the genus Solanum , which is a member of the nightshade family, the Solanaceae . That is a diverse family of flowering plants, often poisonous, that includes the mandrake ( Mandragora ), deadly nightshade ( Atropa ), and tobacco ( Nicotiana ), as shown in the outline phylogenetic tree (many branches omitted). many garden flowers and other species Nicotiana (tobacco) Atropa (nightshades) Mandragora (mandrake) (sweet and bell peppers) S. lycopersicum (tomato) S. tuberosum (potato) In 1753, Linnaeus placed
2300-412: The tomato bug , stink bugs , cutworms , tomato hornworms and tobacco hornworms , aphids , cabbage loopers , whiteflies , tomato fruitworms , flea beetles , red spider mite , slugs , and Colorado potato beetles . The tomato russet mite , Aculops lycopersici , feeds on foliage and young fruit of tomato plants, causing shrivelling and necrosis of leaves, flowers, and fruit, possibly killing
2392-697: The "U" phenotype are beneficial here, but have the disadvantage of leaving green shoulders near the stems of the ripe fruit, and even cracked yellow shoulders. This is apparently because of oxidative stress due to overload of the photosynthetic chain in direct sunlight at high temperatures. Hence, genetic design of a commercial variety that combines the advantages of types "u" and "U" requires fine tuning, but may be feasible. Breeders strive to produce tomato plants with improved yield, shelf life, size, and resistance to environmental pressures, including disease. These efforts have yielded unintended negative consequences on various fruit attributes. For instance, linkage drag ,
2484-523: The 1540s. It was probably eaten shortly after it was introduced, and was certainly being used as food by the early 17th century in Spain, as documented in the 1618 play La octava maravilla by Lope de Vega with "lovelier than ... a tomato in season". The tomato was introduced to China, likely via the Philippines or Macau, in the 16th century. It was given the name 番茄 fānqié (foreign eggplant), as
2576-520: The 18th century, they were cultivated and consumed widely in Europe and had become important crops in both India and North America. Potatoes eventually became an important staple food in the diets of many Europeans, contributing to an estimated 12 to 25% of the population growth in Afro-Eurasia between 1700 and 1900. The introduction of the potato to the Old World accounts for 47 percent of the increase in urbanization between 1700 and 1900. Cassava
2668-650: The Americas as late as the 1880s, when large plantations were established in the Caribbean. The Manila galleon trading network introduced American plants such as chayote and papaya into Southeast Asia; these were incorporated into the cuisines there. Long before the arrival of the Spaniards, cultivators brought wild tomatoes from Central America to South America. Soon after Columbus's visit, tomatoes were brought to Spain, and from there to other European countries, including Italy. In 1544, Pietro Andrea Mattioli ,
2760-434: The Americas between the 16th and 19th centuries, far outnumbering the about 3.4 million Europeans who migrated, most voluntarily, to the New World between 1492 and 1840. The prevalence of African slaves in the New World was related to the demographic decline of New World peoples and the need of European colonists for labor. Another reason for the demand for slaves was the cultivation of crops such as sugar cane suitable for
2852-645: The Americas circa 1720 from Africa and the Middle East, and sugarcane, introduced from the Indian subcontinent to the Spanish West Indies , subsequently became the primary commodity crops and exported goods of extensive Latin American plantations. Introduced to India by the Portuguese, chili peppers and potatoes from South America in turn became integral parts of Indian cuisine , and starting
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2944-452: The Americas from Africa, probably by the slave trade. Many people in Africa had acquired immunity. Europeans suffered higher rates of death than did people of African descent when exposed to yellow fever in the Americas, as numerous epidemics swept the colonies and sugar plantations. On the other hand, European exploration of tropical areas was aided by the New World discovery of quinine ,
3036-619: The Chinese named many foodstuffs introduced from abroad, but referring specifically to early introductions. In 1548, when the house steward of Cosimo de' Medici , the grand duke of Tuscany , wrote to the Medici private secretary informing him that the basket of tomatoes sent from the grand duke's Florentine estate at Torre del Gallo "had arrived safely". Tomatoes were grown mainly as ornamentals early on after their arrival in Italy. For example,
3128-643: The Columbian exchange may have been the spread of syphilis from the native people of the Caribbean Sea to Europe. The history of syphilis has been well-studied, but the origin of the disease remains a subject of debate. There are two primary hypotheses: one proposes that syphilis was carried to Europe from the Americas by the crew of Christopher Columbus in the early 1490s, while the other proposes that syphilis previously existed in Europe but went unrecognized. The first written descriptions of syphilis in
3220-499: The Florentine aristocrat Giovanvettorio Soderini wrote how they "were to be sought only for their beauty", and were grown only in gardens or flower beds. The tomato's ability to mutate and create new and different varieties helped contribute to its success and spread throughout Italy. However, in areas where the climate supported growing tomatoes, their habit of growing close to the ground suggested low status. They were not adopted as
3312-635: The Mapuche from Mariquina and the Huequén next to Angol raised the species. In the Chiloé Archipelago the introduction of pigs by the Spanish proved a success. They could feed on the abundant shellfish and algae exposed by the large tides . In the other direction, the turkey and the Muscovy duck were New World domestic animals transferred to Europe. The first manifestation of
3404-472: The Native American population died in epidemics within the first 100–150 years following 1492. Nunn and Qian also refer to the calculations of the scientist David Cook, in which in some cases no one survived due to diseases. The deadliest Old World diseases in the Americas were smallpox, measles , whooping cough , chicken pox , bubonic plague , typhus , and malaria . Yellow fever was brought to
3496-422: The New World; European planters there relied upon the skills of African slaves to cultivate it. Georgia , South Carolina , Cuba , and Puerto Rico were major centers of rice production during the colonial era . Enslaved Africans brought their knowledge of water control, milling, winnowing , and other agrarian practices to the fields. This widespread knowledge among African slaves eventually led to rice becoming
3588-502: The New. European colonists and African slaves replaced indigenous populations across the Americas, to varying degrees. The number of Africans taken to the New World was far greater than the number of Europeans moving there in the first three centuries after Columbus. The new contacts among the global population resulted in the interchange of many species of crops and livestock , which supported increases in food production and population in
3680-509: The Old World came in 1493. The first large outbreak of syphilis in Europe occurred in 1494–1495 among the army of Charles VIII during its invasion of Naples . Many of the crew members who had served with Columbus had joined this army. After the victory, Charles's largely mercenary army returned to their respective homes, spreading "the Great Pox" across Europe and killing up to five million people. The Columbian exchange of diseases in
3772-464: The Old World improved people's nutrition throughout the Eurasian landmass, enabling more varied and abundant food production. Cassava and maize can have negative consequences when overused (for example, the nutritional diseases pellagra and konzo ). The discovery of the Americas provided the Old World with new arable landscapes suitable for growing sugarcane and coffee . Coffee, introduced in
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3864-444: The Old World. American crops such as maize , potatoes , tomatoes , tobacco , cassava , sweet potatoes , and chili peppers became important crops around the world. Old World rice , wheat , sugar cane , and livestock , among other crops, became important in the New World. The term was first used in 1972 by the American historian and professor Alfred W. Crosby in his environmental history book The Columbian Exchange . It
3956-523: The Spanish tomate , which in turn comes from the Nahuatl word tomatl [ˈtomat͡ɬ] pronunciation . The specific name lycopersicum , meaning "wolf peach", originated with Galen , who used it to denote a plant that has never been identified. Luigi Anguillara speculated in the 16th century that Galen's lycopersicum might be the tomato, and despite the impossibility of this identification, lycopersicum entered scientific use as
4048-515: The US, labeled as 100% Natural Tomato Ketchup and in the specific sizes; 20 oz, 28 oz, 38.5 oz, and 62 oz. In December 2018, NFL quarterback Patrick Mahomes signed an endorsement deal with Hunt's. Mahomes is well-known for his love of ketchup, even putting it on unconventional items such as steak and macaroni and cheese. Tomato The tomato ( US : / t ə m eɪ t oʊ / , UK : / t ə m ɑː t oʊ / ), Solanum lycopersicum ,
4140-452: The biochemistry (many of the alkaloids common to other Solanum species are conspicuously absent from the tomato). On the other hand, hybrids of tomato and diploid potato can be created in the lab by somatic fusion , and are partially fertile, providing evidence of the close relationship between these species. An international consortium of researchers from 10 countries began sequencing the tomato genome in 2004. A prerelease version of
4232-415: The brightest red to the deepest yellow. Sahagún mentioned Aztecs cooking various sauces, some with tomatoes of different sizes, serving them in city markets: "foods sauces, hot sauces; ... with tomatoes, ... sauce of large tomatoes, sauce of ordinary tomatoes, ..." The Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés 's capture of Tenochtitlan in 1521 initiated the widespread cultural and biological interchange called
4324-473: The climatic conditions of the new lands. The Africans were less likely to die, too, from those diseases that had been brought to the New World. Enslaved Africans helped shape an emerging African-American culture in the New World. They participated in both skilled and unskilled labor. For example, according to the work of James L. Watson , slaves were involved in handicraft production. They could also work as ordinary workers, and as managers of small enterprises in
4416-511: The company on canned tomato products, particularly prepared tomato sauce . The Wesson Oil & Snowdrift Company merged with Hunt's Foods, Inc. in 1960 to become Hunt-Wesson Foods. Hunt-Wesson merged with the McCall Corporation and Canada Dry to form Norton Simon Inc. in 1968. Norton Simon was acquired by Esmark in 1983, which merged with Beatrice Foods the next year. In 1985, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts acquired Beatrice with
4508-475: The correct name for the tomato in classifications which do not place the tomato in the genus Solanum . Genetic evidence shows that Linnaeus was correct to put the tomato in the genus Solanum , making S. lycopersicum the correct name. Both names, however, will probably be found in the literature for some time. Two of the major reasons for considering the genera separate are the leaf structure (tomato leaves are markedly different from any other Solanum ), and
4600-440: The culinary use of the tomato included Michele Felice Cornè and Robert Gibbon Johnson . Many Americans considered tomatoes to be poisonous at this time and, in general, they were grown more as ornamental plants than as food. In 1897, W. H. Garrison stated, "The belief was once transmitted that the tomato was sinisterly dangerous." He recalled in his youth tomatoes were dubbed "love-apples or wolf-apples" and shunned as "globes of
4692-502: The devil". When Alexander W. Livingston (1821–1898) began developing the tomato as a commercial crop, his aim had been to grow tomatoes smooth in contour, uniform in size, and sweet in flavor. He eventually developed over seventeen varieties. The U.S. Department of Agriculture's 1937 yearbook declared that "half of the major varieties were a result of the abilities of the Livingstons to evaluate and perpetuate superior material in
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#17327725944554784-525: The direct ancestor of some modern cultivated tomatoes. The Aztecs raised several varieties of tomato, with red tomatoes called xitomatl and green tomatoes (physalis) called tomatl ( tomatillo ). Bernardino de Sahagún reported seeing a great variety of tomatoes in the Aztec market at Tenochtitlán (Mexico City): "large tomatoes, small tomatoes, leaf tomatoes, sweet tomatoes, large serpent tomatoes, nipple-shaped tomatoes", and tomatoes of all colors from
4876-431: The early blight pathogen Alternaria solani . However, this tactic has limitations, since selection for traits such as pathogen resistance can negatively impact other favorable traits such as fruit production. The tomato is grown worldwide for its edible fruits , with thousands of cultivars . Greenhouse tomato production in large-acreage commercial greenhouses and owner-operator stand-alone or multiple-bay greenhouses
4968-457: The exchanges were deliberate while others were unintended. Communicable diseases of Old World origin resulted in an 80 to 95 percent reduction in the indigenous population of the Americas from the 15th century onwards, and their extinction in the Caribbean . The cultures of both hemispheres were significantly impacted by the migration of people, both free and enslaved, from the Old World to
5060-428: The first Europeans to grow cacao , in 1590. Though cacao was usually consumed by European populations in the form of sweets and was at first treated as an expensive luxury item, chocolate helped with fatigue and provided energy. As for vanilla , the pods of the plant after chemical treatment acquired an aroma, which was then used both in cooking and in perfumery. Rice , originally from Asia, became widely planted in
5152-530: The first effective treatment for malaria . Cinchona trees from the Andes were processed and quinine was obtained from their bark. Europeans suffered from this disease, but some indigenous populations had developed at least partial resistance to it. In Africa, resistance to malaria has been associated with other genetic changes among sub-Saharan Africans and their descendants, which can cause sickle-cell disease . The resistance of sub-Saharan Africans to malaria in
5244-499: The first voyage of the Italian explorer Christopher Columbus and his crew to the Americas in 1492 that the Columbian exchange began, resulting in major transformations in the cultures and livelihoods of the peoples in both hemispheres. Because of the new trading resulting from the Columbian exchange, several plants native to the Americas spread around the world, including potatoes , maize , tomatoes , and tobacco . Before 1500, potatoes were not grown outside of South America . By
5336-625: The fresh market and for canning and processing. The University of California, Davis 's C.M. Rick Tomato Genetics Resource Center maintains a gene bank of wild relatives, monogenic mutants and genetic stocks. Research on processing tomatoes is also conducted by the California Tomato Research Institute in Escalon, California . In California, growers have used a method of cultivation called dry-farming , especially with Early Girl tomatoes. This technique encourages
5428-590: The fruits in print as pomi d'oro , or "golden apples". After the Spanish colonization of the Americas , the Spanish distributed the tomato throughout their colonies in the Caribbean . They brought it to the Philippines , from where it spread to southeast Asia and then the whole of Asia. The Spanish brought the tomato to Europe, where it grew easily in Mediterranean climates ; cultivation began in
5520-595: The genome was made available in December 2009. The complete genome for the cultivar Heinz 1706 was published on 31 May 2012 in Nature . The latest reference genome published in 2021 had 799 MB and encodes 34,384 (predicted) proteins, spread over 12 chromosomes. The first commercially available genetically modified food was a tomato called Flavr Savr , which was engineered to have a longer shelf life. It could be vine ripened without compromising shelf life . However,
5612-449: The global diffusion of crops, seeds, and plants from the New World to the Old, which radically transformed agriculture in both regions. His research made a lasting contribution to the way scholars understand the variety of contemporary ecosystems that arose due to these transfers. His 2004 book Ecological Imperialism presented further research in the field. The scientific consensus
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#17327725944555704-826: The goal of selling off businesses. Hunt-Wesson, the company which included the Hunt's brands, was sold in 1990 to agribusiness giant ConAgra Foods . In 1999, ConAgra Grocery Products (the former Hunt-Wesson) moved from Fullerton to Irvine, California . The Irvine office was closed in 2006. Besides several varieties of canned tomato sauce , the Hunt's brand appears on tomato paste , diced, whole, stewed, pureed and crushed tomatoes, organic and No Salt Added tomato products, spaghetti sauce, ketchup , barbecue sauce , canned potatoes, canned peaches and Hunt's Family Favorites line of canned recipe helpers. The Hunt's brand name also appears on Manwich brand sloppy joes products and formerly Hunt's Snack Pack Pudding . Reddi-wip whipped cream
5796-682: The impact of bacterial wilt, sometimes by reducing bacterial abundance and sometimes by selecting for resistant but slow growing genetics. Tomatoes, with their umami flavor, are extensively used in Mediterranean cuisine as a key ingredient in pizza and many pasta sauces. Tomatoes are used in Spanish gazpacho and Catalan pa amb tomàquet . The tomato is a crucial and ubiquitous part of Middle Eastern cuisine , served fresh in salads (e.g., Arab salad , Israeli salad , Shirazi salad and Turkish salad ), grilled with kebabs and other dishes, made into sauces, and so on. Columbian exchange The Columbian exchange , also known as
5888-766: The intentional introductions of cultivated plants that were Crosby's focus, many wild plants and weeds of cultivation were transferred in both directions, permanently affecting the ecology of many parts of the world. Initially, the Columbian exchange of animals largely went in one direction, from Europe to the New World, as the Eurasian regions had domesticated many more animals. Horses , donkeys , mules , pigs , cattle , sheep , goats , chickens , dogs , cats , and bees were rapidly adopted by native peoples for transport, food, and other uses. The Plains Indians , for example, made extensive use of horses for hunting. While mesoamerican peoples, Mayas in particular, already practiced apiculture , producing wax and honey from
5980-551: The introduction of an undesired trait during backcrossing , has altered the metabolism of the fruit. This trait is physically close to the desired allele along the chromosome. Breeding for traits like larger fruit has thus unintentionally altered nutritional value and flavor. Breeders have turned to wild tomato species as a source of alleles to introduce beneficial traits into modern varieties. For example, wild relatives may possess higher amounts of fruit solids (associated with greater sugar content), or resistance to diseases such as to
6072-527: The name 'Love Apple' as a French misreading of the Italian pomo dei Mori ("the Moors' apple") as pomme d'amour , ("apple of love"). The tomato was introduced to cultivation in the Middle East by John Barker , British consul in Aleppo c. 1799 to 1825 . Nineteenth century descriptions of its consumption are uniformly as an ingredient in a cooked dish. In 1881, it is described as only eaten in
6164-479: The other direction was by far deadlier. The peoples of the Americas previously had no exposure to European and African diseases and little or no immunity. An epidemic of swine influenza beginning in 1493 killed many of the Taino people inhabiting Caribbean islands. The pre-contact population of the island of Hispaniola was probably at least 500,000, but by 1526, fewer than 500 were still alive. Spanish exploitation
6256-403: The plant hormone ethylene . At industrial scale, such as for canning, tomatoes are picked mechanically. The machine cuts the whole vine and uses sensors to separate ripe tomatoes from the rest of the plant, which is returned to the farm for use either as green manure or to be grazed by livestock . In 2022, world production of tomatoes was 186 million tonnes , with China accounting for 37% of
6348-508: The plant shipped a hundred million cans of soup, fruits, vegetables, and juices annually. In 1943, Hunt's was taken over by Norton Simon 's Val Vita Food Products - a competing firm founded in the early 1930s and based in Fullerton, California . The merged firm kept the Hunt's name and incorporated as Hunt Food and Industries, Inc. The new management led by Norton Simon decided to focus
6440-422: The plant to send roots deep to find existing moisture. Tomato plants are vines, becoming decumbent , and can grow up to 3 m (9.8 ft); bush varieties are generally no more than 100 cm (3 ft 3 in) tall. They are tender perennials, often grown as annuals. Tomato plants are dicots . They grow as a series of branching stems, with a terminal bud at the tip that does the actual growing. When
6532-430: The plant. After an insect attack tomato plants produce systemin , a plant peptide hormone . This activates defensive mechanisms, such as the production of protease inhibitors to slow the growth of insects. The hormone was first identified in tomatoes. Tomato cultivars vary widely in their resistance to disease. Modern hybrids focus on improving disease resistance over the heirloom plants . A common tomato disease
6624-518: The population of the Inca Empire a few years before the arrival of the Spanish. The ravages of Old World diseases and Spanish exploitation reduced the Mexican population from an estimated 20 million to barely more than a million in the 16th century. The indigenous population of Peru decreased from about 9 million in the pre-Columbian era, to 600,000 in 1620. An estimated 80–95 percent of
6716-445: The process of making curry an international dish. Because crops traveled widely but at least initially their endemic fungi did not, for a limited time yields were somewhat higher in the new regions to which they were introduced, a form of ecological release or " yield honeymoon ". However, the exchange of pathogens has continued alongside globalization, and crops have declined back toward their endemic yields. The Spanish were
6808-408: The product was not commercially successful, and was sold only until 1997. The poor taste and lack of sugar in modern garden and commercial tomato varieties resulted from breeding tomatoes to ripen uniformly red. This change occurred after discovery of a mutant "u" phenotype in the mid-20th century, so named because the fruits ripened uniformly. This was widely cross-bred to produce red fruit without
6900-665: The region "within the last forty years". The earliest reference to tomatoes being grown in British North America is from 1710, when herbalist William Salmon saw them in what is today South Carolina , perhaps introduced from the Caribbean. By the mid-18th century, they were cultivated on some Carolina plantations, and probably in other parts of the Southeast. Thomas Jefferson , who ate tomatoes in Paris, sent some seeds back to America. Some early American advocates of
6992-486: The southern United States and the Caribbean contributed greatly to the specific character of the Africa-sourced slavery in those regions. The movement of people between New and Old Worlds caused cultural exchanges, extending to what Pieter Emmer has called "a clash of cultures". This involved the transfer of European values to indigenous cultures, such as the concept of private property in regions where property
7084-590: The tip eventually stops growing, whether because of pruning or flowering, lateral buds take over and grow into new, fully functional, vines. Tomato vines are typically pubescent, meaning covered with fine short hairs. The hairs facilitate the vining process, turning into roots wherever the plant is in contact with the ground and moisture, especially if the vine's connection to its original root has been damaged or severed. The leaves are 10–25 cm (4–10 in) long, odd pinnate , with five to nine leaflets on petioles , each leaflet up to 8 cm (3 in) long, with
7176-518: The tomato in England. Gerard knew the tomato was eaten in Spain and Italy. Nonetheless, he believed it was poisonous. Gerard's views were influential, and the tomato was considered unfit for eating for many years in Britain and its North American colonies . By 1820, tomatoes were described as "to be seen in great abundance in all our vegetable markets" and to be "used by all our best cooks", reference
7268-411: The tomato in the genus Solanum (alongside the potato) as Solanum lycopersicum . In 1768, Philip Miller moved it to its own genus, naming it Lycopersicon esculentum . The name came into wide use, but was technically in breach of the plant naming rules because Linnaeus's species name lycopersicum still had priority. Although the name Lycopersicum lycopersicum was suggested by Karsten (1888), it
7360-588: The tomato, the red-fruited Solanum pimpinellifolium , is native to western South America, where it was probably first domesticated. The resulting domesticated plant, ancestral to the modern large-fruited tomato varieties, was probably the cherry tomato, S. lycopersicum var. cerasiforme . However, genomic analysis suggests that the domestication process may have been more complex than this. S. lycopersicon var. cerasiforme may have existed before domestication, while traits supposedly typical of domestication may have been reduced in that variety and then reselected (in
7452-773: The tomato." Livingston's first breed of tomato, the Paragon, was introduced in 1870. In 1875, he introduced the Acme, said to be in the parentage of most cultivars for the next twenty-five years. Other early breeders included Henry Tilden in Iowa and a Dr. Hand in Baltimore. Because of the tomato's need for heat and a long growing season, several states in the Sun Belt became major producers, particularly Florida and California . In California, tomatoes are grown under irrigation for both
7544-666: The total, followed by India , Turkey , and the United States as major producers (table). The world dedicated 4.8 million hectares in 2012 for tomato cultivation and the total production was about 161.8 million tonnes . The average world farm yield for tomato was 33.6 tonnes per hectare in 2012. Tomato farms in the Netherlands were the most productive in 2012, with a nationwide average of 476 tonnes per hectare, followed by Belgium (463 tonnes per hectare) and Iceland (429 tonnes per hectare). Common tomato pests include
7636-424: The typical green ring around the stem on un-crossbred varieties. Before this, most tomatoes produced more sugar during ripening, and were sweeter and more flavorful. 10–20% of the total carbon fixed in the fruit can be produced by photosynthesis in the developing fruit of the normal U phenotype. The u mutation encodes a factor that produces defective chloroplasts with lower density in developing fruit, making them
7728-399: The well known and highly prized San Marzano tomato grown in that region, with a European protected designation of origin certification. Tomatoes were not grown in England until the 1590s. One of the earliest cultivators was John Gerard , a barber-surgeon . Gerard's Herbal , published in 1597, and largely plagiarized from continental sources, is also one of the earliest discussions of
7820-457: Was introduced from South America by the Portuguese in the 16th century, and gradually replaced sorghum and millet as Africa's most important food crop. Spanish colonizers of the 16th century introduced new staple crops to Asia from the Americas, including maize and sweet potatoes , contributing to population growth there. On a larger scale, the introduction of potatoes and maize to
7912-565: Was made to their cultivation in gardens still "for the singularity of their appearance", while their use in cooking was associated with exotic Italian or Jewish cuisine. For example, in Elizabeth Blackwell 's A Curious Herbal , it is described under the name "Love Apple ( Amoris Pomum )" as being consumed with oil and vinegar in Italy, similar to consumption of cucumbers in the UK. In 1963, The New York Times gave an explanation of
8004-460: Was often viewed as communal, universal monogamy (though many indigenous peoples were already monogamous), the role of women and children in the social system, and different concepts of labor, including slavery. Christianity was brought to the indigenous peoples by priests and monks from Europe. Tobacco was used in the Old World as medicine and currency, while in the New World, it was the subject of religious customs. Some New World peoples such as
8096-478: Was originally also under the Hunt's banner. In 1988, Hunt's catsup changed its label to ketchup. In May 2010, Hunt's ketchup temporarily removed high fructose corn syrup from its ingredients. The new ingredients were "tomatoes, sugar , vinegar , salt and other seasonings ". The product changed back to high fructose corn syrup in May 2012. As of May 2017, the sugar-based version has been available for some time in
8188-514: Was ornamental, not least because it was understood to be related to the nightshades and assumed to be poisonous. The exact date of domestication is unknown; by 500 BC, it was already being cultivated in southern Mexico and probably other areas. The Pueblo people believed that tomato seeds could confer powers of divination . The large, lumpy variety of tomato, a mutation from a smoother, smaller fruit, originated in Mesoamerica, and may be
8280-575: Was part of the cause of the near-extinction of the native people. In 1518, smallpox was first recorded in the Americas and became the deadliest imported Old World disease. Forty percent of the 200,000 people living in the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan , later Mexico City , are estimated to have died of smallpox in 1520 during the war of the Aztecs with conquistador Hernán Cortés . Epidemics, possibly of smallpox, spread from Central America , devastated
8372-536: Was published in Naples in 1692, though the author had apparently obtained these recipes from Spanish sources. Varieties were developed over the following centuries for drying, for sauce, for pizzas, and for long-term storage. These varieties are usually known for their place of origin as much as by a variety name. For example, there is the Pomodorino del Piennolo del Vesuvio , the "hanging tomato of Vesuvius", and
8464-479: Was rapidly adopted by other historians and by journalists. In 1972, Alfred W. Crosby , an American historian at the University of Texas at Austin , published the book The Columbian Exchange , thus coining the term. His primary focus was mapping the biological and cultural transfers that occurred between the Old and New Worlds . He studied the effects of Columbus 's voyages between the two – specifically,
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