View source for Tomato

'''Common tomato''': ''Lycopersicon esculentum''

[[image:tomato.jpg]]

A plant with juicy red [[fruit]].

The origin of the word tomato is Latin for 'juicy [[wolf]] [[peach]]' because they were believed to evoke werewolves, and were initially believed to be poisonous (and despite being proven otherwise, some people like to hold onto the belief that they are still poisonous to avoid eating them... unless they're made into a sauce). They only became popular in the early 1820s after it was discovered they weren't poisonous, and became exceptionally popular in the 1920s when they became widely cultivated.

It's a common SCA myth that tomatoes were not available in Europe in the SCA [[period]] (pre-seventeenth century). 

In fact, as with many [[New world foods|New World]] (read North and South Americas) foods (like [[chocolate]]), it was in fact known, and utilised, if in different ways to the modern palate. If anything, the initial rarity value made it an expensive novelty. 

They were known as "Golden Apples", and were for example eaten as follows:

"The golden apple one eats in the same way as the eggplant with pepper, salt and oil, but it gives little and evil nutrition."
(Source: "Herbario nuovo", Roma, 1585, dall'introduzione di Piero Camporesi a "La scienza in cucina e l'arte del mangiare bene" di Pellegrino Artusi)

For an excellent discussion on tomatoes and their use in the SCA period, read this excellent article available at Stefan's Florilegium:
http://www.florilegium.org/files/FOOD-VEGETABLES/16C-Tomato-art.html

If, for some bizarre reason, you want to grow tomatoes, they're apparently fairly easy to cultivate. You can readily buy seeds and seedlings from the [[supermarket]] or [[Bunnings]], and you should plant them in full sun so they get plenty of [[water]]. You may have to fight a number of tomato problems such as [[anthracnose]], bacterial canker, [[black mould]], curly top, early [[blight]], [[root rot]], powdery [[mildew]], southern blight, infectious chlorosis virus, tomato pith [[necrosis]], water [[mould]], white mould. 

There are also lots of [[insect]]s which like to munch on your tomato plant, such as: lygus [[bug]]s, [[potato]] [[tuberworm]] (they've clearly become confused), stink bugs, fruit [[worms]], pin worms, leafhopers, [[aphids]], leaf miners, [[mite]]s, cutworms and [[symphlyans]]. [[Nematode]]s will also have a fun time with your tomato.

Tomatoes are a nitrogen hungry crop, so planting them in a plot after a crop of [[legumes]] is common. Due to the bright red colouring of many varieties being a bird attractor many store bought tomatoes are not fully vine ripened unless they are hydroponically grown. This is the reason hydroponic tomatoes generally taste better, although netting plants can allow fruits to ripen on the vine without fear of avine menaces. 

There are many tomato varieties (non-[[hybrid]]) such as:
* [[Cherry]] tomatoes
* Roma tomatoes
* Leopard tomatoes, a.k.a Tigrella
* Hardy Tom
* Grosse Lisse
* [[Yellow]] [[Pear]]
* [[Rouge]] de Marmade
* Brandywine
* [[Swedish]] tomatoes
* Jubilee
* Stupice
* [[Plum]] tomatoes
* Evergreen tomatoes
* Giant [[Belgian]]
* Potentate
* Tommy Toe