tomatoes

Tomatoes were originally from the South American Andes. It was about the size of a cherry and meant "love apple" in Italian. For a long time, it was considered poisonous to Americans, but in 1820, Robert Gibbon Johnson stood in front of a court house in New Jersey and ate a tomato, proving it wasn't poisonous. In 1893, the tomato was declared a vegetable, not a fruit.



The average American consumes about 80 pounds of tomatoes a year, and half of those tomatoes are made in California, the largest tomato producing place in the world.

If you want to plant your own tomatoes, there are some things you should know. First of all, tomatoes need light, so find a place where they would be able to see the sun as long as possible. Secondly, pre-heat the seeds a few days early so that the seeds can be a few degrees warmer before going into the ground. Tomatoes also will grow long roots, so bury them deeper in the soil than they may have been in a pot. Then, to keep them warm, if you plan to put in mulch, wait until the seeds have had time to grow and heat up before covering it so it doesn't cool the seeds too much.