A Master Gardener Tale~ Purple What?
by Guest Writer, Nancy Harper
If you are over 40, you may remember that tomatoes are supposed to be red, or at least orange red. Then someone hybridized yellow tomatoes with less acid content. The pink tomatoes were next and are some place between orange red and yellow on the acidity scale. Somewhere in between small bite sized tomatoes were developed. How about some purple ones? Did you ever wonder how tomatoes came to be a staple in most households? Ever wonder where did tomatoes actually come from originally? Are they native to the Americas? It seems the answer is no and yes and well maybe. Spanish government started encouraging its production in both Europe and its distant colonies because of the proximity of climates to South America. Eating tomatoes as a common food rapidly grew in Spain and Portugal, but not in northern European areas. Do you know why? Why other European countries did not adopt the tomato immediately. The tomato is considered a part of the Nightshade plant some of which can be poisonous. But that was not the real problem. Northern European nobility ate from lead based pewter plates. Combining the acid from tomatoes with these
plates was poisonous. So in northern Europe tomatoes were used as decorations but certainly not eaten! The poorer class of people, however, who ate off wooden plates did not have that problem, and therefore did not have an aversion to eating tomatoes. This is the reason tomatoes were only eaten by poor people until the 1800’s when pewter eating ware went out of style. Now back to the original question – Purple What? Want to try something really neat? Try the little purple ones. Master Gardener Cathy Harvey and I bought some plants that were large sized tomatoes that were supposed to be “purple.” We were not impressed. Perhaps it was our soil, or the weather or whatever. However, at River Oaks Health Campus, the residents have a bush of small purple ones that are not only a very dark purple and very pretty, but are considered very good for your health because of the high levels of anthocyanins, the disease-fighting compounds that help fight cancer, reduce inflammation and are thought to slow the aging process. Be aware though, do not pick them until the pretty purple becomes a more mottled purple brown shade, the green on the bottom turns orange red and the fruit is softer to the touch. Only now are they ripe. They have a slightly different taste, but are really very good. Nancy Harper, Gibson County Master Gardener
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