The tomato is Gastropod’s favorite flavor of summer, and we’re not alone: today, it’s the most popular vegetable on the planet, despite the fact that it's technically a fruit. But, until a couple of hundred years ago, the tomato wasn't really anyone's favorite. In South America, where the tomato originates, no one even bothered to domesticate it; in Mexico, the Aztecs seem to have preferred tomatillos; Renaissance Europeans thought this member of the nightshade family was practically poisonous; and, until the 1830s, most Americans considered them an “acquired taste.” Even in Italy, where the culinary mainstays of pizza and pasta now depend on red sauce, it took centuries to catch on. So why was the tomato so unloved—and how did it end up converting the haters on its rise to glory? Listen in this episode for the story of how Italian block parties, snake oil pills, and the state of Florida played in a role in the tomato’s journey to global domination—as well as the epic tale of one man’s quest to make the industrial tomato taste great again.

Episode Notes

William Alexander

Bill Alexander is the author of several books, including Ten Tomatoes That Changed the World.

Gabriela Toledo-Ortiz

Gabriela Toledo is a professor at the University of Wageningen and the founder of the Tomatoes4Tomorrow project, which aims to protect Mexico's tomato agro-biodiversity and to help growers adapt to climate change. (If you want to learn more about her work, we'll be talking all about it in our supporters-only newsletter!)

Harry Klee

Harry Klee is an emeritus professor at the University of Florida. Nicky wrote about his project to restore the industrial tomato's lost flavor in her new book, Frostbite: How Refrigeration Transformed Our Food, Our Planet, and Ourselves. Visit his lab website to get some seeds yourself, and contribute to his citizen science research from your own backyard!

The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation for the Public Understanding of Science, Technology, and Economics

This episode of Gastropod was supported by a generous grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation for the Public Understanding of Science, Technology, and Economics. Check out the other books, movies, shows, podcasts, and more that they support here.

Tomatomania 

If you're in California (or Denver) and want the best selection of tomato seedlings, Tomatomania is the place to be. Shout-out to the lovely folks at Fig Earth Supply, where Nicky regularly purchases too many heirloom seedlings each spring and then gorged herself on 114 different varieties at a Tomatomania tasting this summer!