Page 22 - ALG Issue 1 2020

vegetable...
Lycopersicon esculentum
AKA tomatoes, or the Wolfpeach
If you have a warm, sheltered, sunny spot on your plot, giving over some space for a row of tomatoes will
reward you with some tasty salad ingredients and, in a bumper year, enough passata to add to your pasta sauces until the following season. It has also been reported that homegrown tomatoes ripened on the vine contain concentrated amounts of beneficial nutrients such as the antioxidant lycopene. They can be grown directly
in the soil or in the greenhouse, and Andrew Tokely from Kings Seeds has included a Tomato Masterclass in his “On the King’s Plot” article on page 21.
Tomatoes are believed to have originated in South America and were brought to Europe by travellers in the 16th Century, first grown in Britain in the 1590s as a decorative plant. Many aristocrats who ate tomatoes in the following years suffered as a result and they acquired the nickname of ‘poison apple’. However, the pewter plates used by the wealthy were the real culprit
– the acid in the fruit caused lead to leach from the plates, resulting in many deaths from lead poisoning. It was not until the 19th Century that commercial tomato cultivation for food began. The
Tomatoes are believed to have originated in South America and were brought to Europe by travellers in the 16th Century
first glasshouses were built in Kent
and Essex after large-scale production of sheet glass was developed, and the tomato was subsequently in almost daily use in England in soups, stews and sauces.
Rotten tomatoes were traditionally thrown at people in the stocks, and the town of Buñol in Spain has a mass tomato fight every year. This popular festival began by accident on the last
Wednesday in August in 1945 during a parade in People's Square. The parade took place with musicians, giants, and large heads, and a few youngsters made one of the participants fall, hitting everything that got in his way. The crowd became angry and began throwing tomatoes that they found on a nearby vegetable stand. The festival now begins at approximately eleven in the morning on the last Wednesday in August. 120 tonnes of tomatoes are dumped on the ground in various positions. For the next hour, participants grab tomatoes, crush them slightly, and then begin tossing them at everyone else. When the hour is up a firework shot is heard, and all tomato-throwing must cease. Once the debris has been hosed from the town,
it is sparkling clean, as the acidity from the tomatoes cleans up the cobbles and marble. Sounds like great fun – but what a waste of food!
There is a vast choice of tomato varieties available. Kings Seeds have a choice
of 30, from tiny trailing Peardrops to extra-large juicy Beefmaster. They range in colour, with yellow, red, pink, black, orange and purple varieties, and offer flavours from sweet to more acidic. The most popular for flavour are those that combine high sugar levels with high acidity. Cherry and grape tomatoes reach higher sugar concentrations than full-size tomatoes, so they taste sweeter. Grow in full sun to get the best taste.
22 Allotment and Leisure Gardener