August 2001 issue - Tomatoes


Here you'll find all the sources of the information on roses in this month's Sideshoots. All were correct at the time of going to press.

Tomato Facts

  • Tallest tomato plant grown in Britain, by Nutriculture Ltd, Mawdesley, Lancashire measured in May 2000: 19.8 m. (65 ft.)
    (http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com\)

  • Number of tomatoes produced on the plant, variety Sungold: 1000
    (http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com)

  • Time, in months, taken to reach record height: 15
    (http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com)

  • Maximum height of the world’Äôs smallest tomato variety, Micro-Tom, raised by the University of Florida, when grown in a 4in/10cm pot: 8in (20cm)
    (http://www.tomatogrowers.com)

  • Heaviest tomato grown in Britain, by R Burrows of Huddersfield: 2.54kg (51b 6oz)
    (pers. comm. Geoff Hodge, Garden News)

  • Heaviest tomato grown anywhere in the world. grown by Gordon Graham of Edmond, Oklahoma: 3.51kg (7lb 12oz)
    (pers. comm. Geoff Hodge, Garden News)

  • Time, in seconds, taken by the fastest tomato ketchup drinker in the world, Dustin Phillips of Los Angeles, to drink 91% of a 400gm bottle through a 6mm straw: 33
    (http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com)

  • Number of tomato seeds that weigh one ounce: 11,500
    (http://www.orst.edu/Dept/NWREC/tomato.html)

  • Pounds of tomatoes produced, per week, at the height of the California tomato season: 2,000,000,000
    (http://www.ctga.org/html/html/FastFacts.html)

  • Total weight, in tonnes, of tomatoes consumed in Britain in 1999: 428,000
    (MAFF/TGA http://www.britishtomatoes.co.uk/market.html)

  • Proportion of tomatoes eaten in Britain which are actually grown here: 28% (120,000 tonnes)
    (HM Customs & Excise http://www.britishtomatoes.co.uk/market.html)

  • Weight of tomatoes consumed in Britain per person per year: 16lbs (7.25kg)
    (http://www.britishtomatoes.co.uk/market.html)

  • Weight of tomatoes consumed in the United States per person per year: 41.28kg 91lb)
    (http://www.ers.usda.gov/briefing/tomatoes)

  • Number of bumblebees used to pollinate tomatoes in Britain’Äôs commercial greenhouses: 2,500,000
    (http://www.britishtomatoes.co.uk)

  • Number of acts of pollination per bumblebee, per day: 2000
    (http://www.britishtomatoes.co.uk)

  • Number of varieties listed by the Tomato Growers Supply Company: 310
    (counted in catalogue)

Tomato banter

    THE PROTESTERS WEAPON OF CHOICE, I GATHER
    Well, Tony Blair was on the red end of one in January at a college in Bristol.
    (http://www.guardian.co.uk/gallery/image/0,8543,-10104114805,00.html)

    A BEEFSTEAK RATHER THAN A CHERRY, I PRESUME
    Oh yes, and at 94% water with a skin to hold it altogether a tomato makes a fine weapon. Though perhaps not Californian tomatoes some of which are bred to have skins so tough that they don’Äôt break when packed loose in a lorry with 300,000 others. They’Äôd never splat.
    from "Nutrition: Concepts and Controversy" Hamilton, Whitney and Sizer, West Publishing 1988 on http://www.kcinter.net/~mule/facts.html
    (http://www.ctga.org/html/html/FastFacts.html)

    NO TOMATO HAS A SKIN THAT TOUGH
    Have you tried a Moneymaker? Why do you think it got its name?

    BUT THERE’ÄôS MORE TO TOMATOES THAN AMMUNITION
    There’Äôs ketchup.

    BORING, BORING
    Not according to Britain’Äôs chip eaters, 24% of whom put ketchup on their chips.
    British Potato Council reported at (http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com)

    NOW YOU’ÄôRE GOING TO TELL ME THIS MAKES THE MEAL MORE HEALTHY
    Absolutely. Men with high levels of lycopene, found particularly in cooked tomatoes, are far less likely to suffer from heart attacks. And, I might add, British tomatoes contain up to five times as much lycopene as tomatoes from some other parts of Europe. It also helps prevent testicular cancer.
    (http://www.britishtomatoes.co.uk/miraclereport.html)

    SO PIZZA AND KETCHUP REALLY ARE GOOD FOR YOU
    And tomatoes also help prevent colds. One four ounce tomato can provide a third of an adult’Äôs daily Vitamin C requirement. But oddly, research has shown that tomatoes grown using conventional methods contained more vitamin C than those grown organically.
    (http://www.ctga.org/html/html/TomatosandHealth.html)

    BUT WEREN’ÄôT THEY ORIGINALLY THOUGHT TO BE POISONOUS?
    They were. Because they’Äôre in the nightshade family people refused to eat them and used them only for decoration.

    SO WHO TOOK THE CHANCE WITH THE FIRST TOMATO SALAD?
    On September 26, 1820 Colonel Robert Gibbon Johnson ate a basket full of tomatoes on the courthouse steps in Salem, New Jersey. The crowd had gathered expecting to see the Colonel drop down dead but when he cheerfully survived, and enjoyed his meal, the success of the tomato was assured.
    (http://www.heirloomseeds.com/trivia.htm)

    SO IT TURNED OUT TO BE A WHOLESOME NATURAL FOOD?
    Well certainly wholesome but some modern varieties are not exactly natural.

    WE’ÄôRE TALKING FRANKENSTEIN FOODS HERE, AREN’ÄôT WE.
    In 1994 the variety ’ÄòFLAVR SVR’Äô was launched, it contained a gene from an arctic flounder to help it resist low temperatures.
    (http://vm.cfsan.fda.gov/~lrd/biotech.html)

    I CAN SEE IT NOW ATTACK OF THE FLOUNDER TOMATOES
    Well, vegetarians can grow their own, just to be on the safe side. British seed companies don’Äôt sell GM varieties.


Is it a fruit or a vegetable?

    ’ÄòDictionaries define the word "fruit" as the seed of plants, or that part of plants which contains the seed, and especially the juicy, pulpy products of certain plants, covering and containing the seed. These definitions have no tendency to show that tomatoes are "fruit," as distinguished from "vegetables," in common speech.

    ’ÄòThere being no evidence that the words 'fruit' and 'vegetables' have acquired any special meaning in trade or commerce, they must receive their ordinary meaning’Ķ Botanically speaking, tomatoes are the fruit of a vine, just as are cucumbers, squashes, beans, and peas. But in the common language of the people, whether sellers or consumers of provisions, all these are vegetables’Äô

    Judgement of US Supreme Court, NIX v. HEDDEN, May 10, 1893
    (http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?navby
    =search&court=US&case=/us/149/304.html)


Strange tomatoes


    My Tomato (Film, 1943) "Joe Doakes hasn't had stewed tomatoes for so long, he thinks they have been rationed like butter, eggs, and meat. After he decides to grow his own tomatoes, everyone he meets gives him conflicting advice as to the proper method for getting the best results." (http://www.imdb.com)


Strange, but actual, tomatoes

    Silvery Fir Tree, Pink Ping Pong, Box Car Willie, Dad’Äôs Mug, Mule Team, German Red Strawberry, Lime Green Salad, Britain’Äôs Breakfast, Kellogg’Äôs Breakfast, Mortgage Lifter.
    (Tomato Growers Supply Company catalogue)

He said

    ’ÄòI was a stand-up tomato: a juicy, sexy, beefsteak tomato! Nobody does vegetables like me! I did an evening of vegetables off-Broadway! I did the best tomato, the best cucumber... I did an endive salad that knocked the critics on their ass!’Äô Dustin Hoffman as Michael Dorsey in Tootsie (1982)
    (http://www.imdb.com)


She said

    ’ÄòThey are gardeners and carpenters, they are not tomato men.’Äô Karen Mistal as Tara in The Return of the Killer Tomatoes! (1988) (NB Karen Mistal also starred in Cannibal Women in the Avocado Jungle of Death!!
    (http://www.imdb.com)













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