[Sca-cooks] More musings on nightshade and tomatoes

[Christiane]

I've always wondered if the reason why the English herbalists disliked tomatoes was because England has really bad tomato-growing conditions, therefore the tomatoes they grew tasted like doo-doo. It rains a lot in England, and tomatoes grow best (and taste best) in hotter, drier climes. Drier, hotter conditions produce a tomato with concentrated sweetness and intense flavor. Tomatoes thrive in lots of sun, and produce lots of fruit in those conditions. Tomatoes and basil go well together not only culinarily, but in gardens as well (growing basil next to tomatoes helps protect them from whitefly and other insect infestations). 

A water-containing fruit would also be especially valued in the hot, dry south of Italy and Sicily, where there has been a cultural association between water=good luck=fertility (and the mal'occhio or jettatura was attributed to drying out crops, cows, semen, and a woman's ability to conceive). Plus, the volcanic soils of the region would produce superior tomatoes.

That's just my theory as to why tomatoes took so long to catch on in England, but were adopted earlier in the Meditteranean.

Gianotta