By Marla Koss
Every year ABG offers various tomato starts at its Spring Plant Sale. The past three years we’ve sold them at our booth at ARPD’s fabulous Spring Shindig out at Alameda Point (this year, held on Saturday April 19th – mark your calendars!). Since we have yet to sow our tomato seeds, we would love to know what you most look for when shopping for the tomato varieties that will be afforded space in your yard in 2025. (The poll closes on February 10th - click here.)
Meanwhile, test your knowledge of one of our favorite vegetables to grow below!
True or False? Tomatoes increase in weight as they ripen, even after harvesting.
True!
True or False? Tomatoes first arrived in Italy thanks to Marco Polo, who discovered them in China.
False. Tomatoes originated in the New World and were brought back to Europe by explorers early in the 16th Century.
True or False? A tomato plant needs at least one other tomato plant nearby to get pollinated.
False. Tomato flowers are bisexual and able to self-pollinate.
True or False? Tomatoes may be classified as a fruit, but it has legal standing as a vegetable via a ruling by the US Supreme Court.
True. Due to U.S. tariff laws that imposed a duty on vegetables (but not fruit) in the 1880’s/1890’s, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that tomatoes would be considered a vegetable (the Tariff Act of March 3, 1883).
True or False? The USA is the world’s biggest producer of tomatoes
False. In 2022, China produced 37% of the world’s tomatoes, followed by India, Turkey and the US.
True or False? Tomato cousins include Mandrake, Tobacco and Deadly Nightshade.
True. The tomato is a member of the wide-ranging Nightshade family, Solanacea. Mandrake (Solanacea mandragora), Tobacco (Solanacea nicotiana) and Deadly Nightshade (Solanacea atropa) are a tomato’s less inviting kin.
True or False? Tomato colors are modified by whether their transparent skin is either colorless or tinged yellow. Example: red tomatoes are actually pink tomatoes with a yellow skin.
True. Black tomatoes are simply purple tomatoes with yellow skin (example: Cherokee Chocolate has the same color flesh inside as Cherokee Purple). Ergo, red/pink, black/purple, orange/yellow, etc. are all determined by the color of that strong, thin, transparent skin that covers the tomato.
True or False? Ripe tomatoes keep best in the refrigerator.
False. Tomatoes keep best out of sunlight at room temperature. They lose their flavor in the fridge.
True or False? Storing tomatoes stem-end down will preserve shelf life.
True!
True or False? The Dutch Socialist Party adopted the tomato as its logo, since throwing tomatoes has long been a practice during protests.
True!
Arabic
Chinese (Simplified)
English
Filipino
French
German
Greek
Hindi
Hmong
Indonesian
Italian
Japanese
Korean
Persian
Portuguese
Punjabi
Russian
Samoan
Somali
Spanish
Sundanese
Tajik
Tamil
Turkish
Urdu
Vietnamese